likeness

Cecelia Phillips, Brittany, 2006, oil on canvas

This entry is long overdue. But I think I've detected a pattern of late in my life - a trend if you will.

It is only natural as a human being to elicit some sort of interest in portraiture. But for the past year or so I've put what some may describe as an alarming amount of time and energy into 1) convincing others to create my portrait, and 2) to the study of the portraiture of others.

1) In an ongoing artistic project/performance, I am trying to have every artist that I know make some form of portrait/likeness of me - creating a catalogue of "selves" - or interpretations of myself mediated through others, so to speak. I've only just started, but already have acquired some top-notch portraits. The problem with such a project is that you're basically asking an artist to make and give you an original work - an obligation that is not always welcome.

2) In the past two weeks I have seen two amazing exhibitions of portraits by two of my favourite aritsts: Hans Holbein and David Hockney - two artists separated by the gulf of centuries, but interestingly both painting portraits mainly of english people:



Hans Holbein the Younger
A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling,
about 1526-8, oil on oak



David Hockney
Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy,
1970-71, acrylic on canvas

And while these are two very beautiful examples of their finished work, I find that the drawings included in both of these exhibitions are truly the show-stoppers. Hasty sketches on paper, capturing moments, glances: Hockney's drawings of Celia Birtwell and a young Gregory Evans are particularly riveting ---Likewise, Holbein's sweeping gestures in chalk capturing the faces of the English nobility in a single sitting are - quite literally - mesmerizing, judging by the amount of time I stood examining the delicate whiskers and finely wrought wrinkles around the eyes of Sir Thomas More.....


Hans Holbein the Younger
Sir Thomas More
1526-27, black and coloured chalks on paper



I suppose I should draw some sort of earth-shattering conclusion -- connecting all my thoughts on portraits together - but I'm afraid that I cannot. It all comes back to the face. This strange fixation I have with faces and identity. (Please go back to my earlier post on physiognomy for clarification). I guess I'm interested in how people can perform as active agents in their own visual construction - through the hands of others.

"Put your best face forward."