Orchard Beach in the Bronx doesn’t exactly have the best reputation. While the 1.1 mile stretch of beach, formed from landfill and sand shipped in via barges, was declared “The Riviera of New York” when it opened in the 1930s under the direction of Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, its profile has since declined.
Portraiture
Posted inArt
Repatriation Through Portraiture: Giving Narrative to Disability
Many studies of anatomy and the beauty of the human body are all about symmetry and proportions, a sort of endless steamrolling of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” through art history. Yet that barely explores the incredible diversity of human forms. It’s the “variant body” that artist Riva Lehrer examines in teaching anatomy at the Art Institute of Chicago and in her series of portraits responding to her own disability, as well as to anyone who lives in a body that feels outside what’s perceived as “normal.”
Posted inOpinion
New Exhibit Probes Changes in Portrait Photography
OAKLAND, Calif. — The stereotype of SnapChat — that it’s for sending naked pictures — undergirds a more common but mundane usage: it’s used for sending pictures of ourselves. And what is a picture of ourselves but a portrait?
Posted inArt
A Portrait of Mass Transit Through Its Bus Drivers
The identity of any city is reflected in its mass transit, and who better to communicate it than the transit operators themselves?
Posted inOpinion
The Egos of US Politicians, Preserved in Paint
US politicians are notoriously stingy about arts funding, but it turns out they’ve been dropping tens of thousands of dollars on commissioned portraits for decades! Why are we not surprised?
Posted inArt
A Trove of Portraiture Once Hidden Away in Oxford’s Library Goes Online
The Bodleian Library acts as something of the University of Oxford’s cerebral hub with over 11 million items, but what has been an inaccessible secret is its large holding of art. Now 300 of its paintings are now viewable on Your Paintings hosted by the BBC.
Posted inArt
Our Selfies, Ourselves
There was a period when I didn’t know what, exactly a “selfie” was. It sounded like a euphemism for something. Now I know that it’s just a self-portrait — our medium of choice for Facebook and Instagram (RIP). Two recent phenomena, faked selfies and art critic Brian Droitcour’s #artselfies, take the format to the next level.
Posted inArt
Beyond the Portrait’s Blank Stare
Currently on view in the refectory at Union Theological Seminary are 16 beige painted rectangles, including one ensconced in a prewar, built-in, gilded mold over the large fireplace. The rectangles are silhouettes of the portraits of former Union board members and school presidents that traditionally occupy the space. The portraits’ absence, along with an accompanying publication, make up an exhibition titled About Face: Portraits at Union Theological Seminary, by artist Cathy Busby.
Posted inArt
An Artist Goes Undercover at a JC Penney Portrait Studio
Studio portraits do not document an event; the making of the photograph is the event. In order to create a series titled Free Sitting, artist Nora Herting got a job as a trade photographer at a portrait studio in a JC Penney department store in Ohio.
Posted inOpinion
Saving The Queen In Art and Image
Most of the works in The Queen: Art and Image, now on view at the National Gallery complex in Edinburgh and traveling to two other venues before opening at the National Portrait Gallery in London next spring, are perfect representations of the times during which they were created.
Posted inNews
Ravishing Shakespeare Portrait on View in NYC
Even though we all think we know what Shakespeare looks like from our middle school Hamlet textbooks, only one portrait was (probably) painted in the writer’s lifetime. In this singular work now on view at New York City’s Morgan Library, Shakespeare is a total 17th century hottie with glowing skin, a stylish goatee and overwhelmingly large collar. Sexy. Unveiled in 2009, the quality and age of the portrait means it is now believed to be the original in a long line of Shakespeare portraits, the ancestors of our textbook copies.