Photo:
The Outwin 2016 American Portrait
competition winners
Published in the Weekly Volcano, Feb. 9, 2017
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| “Alison Bechdel,” charcoal, mixed media and 3-D collage on paper, by Riva Lehrer, collection of the Sandy Hindin Stone, © Riva Hehrer, courtesy Tacoma Art Museum |
The development of photography in
the early 19th century almost killed portrait painting as a fine art
and forced artists to find new ways of making art. Prior to the advent of
photography, the purpose of portraiture was to memorialize or honor the subject
of the portrait. The subject (the person pictured) was more important that the
object (the painting — composition, color, technique, elicited emotional
response and so forth). To my way of thinking, that change made artists become
better artists, and it made traditional portrait painting become an almost
obsolete art form.
The 43 portraits in the traveling
exhibition, The Outwin 2016: American
Portraiture Today from the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery offer
answers to the question of how portraiture can still be a significant
contemporary art form. For starters, the exhibition includes photographs as
well as paintings, sculpture and video. Curator Dorothy Moss said modern
iterations of this competitive portrait exhibition have often included abstract
and conceptual art, but this year’s show is much more traditional.
At first glance, my impression was
that the show was dominated by portraits from the tradition that began with
Manet and went through Pop Art and photo-realist portraiture as exemplified by
works by Chuck Close, Alex Katz and Andy Warhol — isolated figures facing
forward with flat backgrounds, no context. One of the two galleries given over
to the show is almost exclusively this type of portraiture, including the
first, second and third place winners (in order: Amy Sherald’s acrylic painting
“Miss Everything (unsuppressed Deliverance)”, Cynthia Henebry’s digital
photograph “Mavis in the Back Seat)” and Joel Daniel Phillips’ charcoal and
graphite drawing “Eugene #4).”
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| "Miss Everything,(Unsuppressed Deliverance)" oil on canvas by Any Sherald, collection of Frances and Buton Reifler © Amy Sherald, courtesy Tacoma Art Museum |
Works in the second gallery
somewhat belied that impression because that gallery contains more variety in
style and media and more works depicting subjects in environments, including
the People’s Choice winner, Adrian “Viajero” Roman’s charcoal-on-wood portrait
of Constancia Colónde Clemente. This may be the only time I have ever agreed
with a people’s choice selection. This portrait is of an elderly Cuban woman.
It is drawn on a box measuring 48-by-48-by 49 inches and hung high from the
ceiling, drawn on all four sides with no bottom. Viewers can walk under it,
look up, and see mementoes from the woman’s life attached to the inside of the
box. It is skillfully executed and may be the most inventive and honest
portrait in the show.
Also outstanding is Sherald’s
first-place winner. It is a portrait of a young Black woman wearing a black and
white dress, solid black on one side with white piping and white polka dots on
the other side. She daintily holds an oversized coffee cup and wears a jaunty
red hat. Her face and arms are painted with smooth shading, while her dress and
the coffee cup are flat in a style reminiscent of Alec Katz portraits. I also
see reminders or influences from Kehinde Wiley and Roy Litchenstein. The
composition is subtle and exquisite.
Another portrait that absolutely
blew me away is Riva Lehrer’s portrait of the cartoonist Alison Bechdel (famous
for the comic strip “Dykes to Watch Out For” and one of the few portraits of
famous people in the show, another being Brenda Ziamany’s portrait of David
Hockney). Lehrer’s portrait in charcoal, mixed-media and collage creates an
alluring sense of mystery due to strong light and dark contrast, a cast shadow
and blue lines that play in a provocative way with illusory space.
Most the portraits in this show are
skillfully done and realistic in a modernist tradition. There is a lot of
identity art with depictions of the poor and marginalized, ethnic and racial
minorities, a gay couple and a transgender teenage girl wearing a dress for the
very first time.
Tacoma Art Museum, Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., through May 14, $15, third Thursday
free 10 a.m.-8 p.m., 1701 Pacific Ave. Tacoma, http://www.tacomaartmuseum.org/
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