About Face: Portraiture in the Ahmanson Collection

November 17, 2024 - March 17, 2025

Native Country #1, 2013

Digital C print on archival paper

Edition 1 of 3

—Curator: John Silvis

—Catalogue Text: Jennifer R. Gross

Irvine, California: The Ahmanson Gallery's forthcoming exhibition, Face Value, will present twenty-eight portraits from the esteemed Ahmanson Collection. This thoughtfully curated exhibition offers a historic and cross-generational examination of the portrait genre, exploring its evolving cultural significance and diverse interpretations.

Face Value traces the evolution of portraiture from its origins as a formal stylistic practice in the Renaissance, where artists focused on capturing the surface details of their subjects, to its modern realization as a more interpretive art form, aimed at expressing the essence of a subject's persona or reflecting the artist’s creative exploration of individuality.

Over the centuries, portraiture has adapted stylistically to reflect shifting cultural values. By the nineteenth century, as portrait painting became a more professionalized and specialized practice, its subjects diversified, representing a broader spectrum of class, occupation, race, and gender. This evolution enriched the genre's ability to document cultural history. Simultaneously, the advent of photography complemented the achievements of painting, allowing artists to work across both mediums in their studies of humanity. The works in this exhibition explore the essence of humanity, while their creators continue to experiment with new approaches to understanding individuality.

Contemporary artists are transforming the legacy of portraiture, boldly expanding the boundaries of the medium in profound and innovative ways. Our understanding of character and identity has grown more intricate, shaped by the global blending of cultural traditions and experiences through immigration, travel, and digital media. Artists now fabricate visually enigmatic and psychologically complex objects of contemplation, employing diverse mediums such as collage, assemblage, painting, sculpture, and photography. These varied approaches uncover the layered reality of what it means to be human in a global context. The human face, rich in meaning, can inspire and uplift, remind us of our connection to the divine, and challenge our prejudices. The exhibition underscores the intrinsic human need for connection and reassurance, showing how portraiture continues to speak to our universal desires.

ARTISTS: Derrick Adams, Francesco Arena, Peter Brandes, Andrea Büttner, Mary Cassatt, Kieran Dodds, Iwan Effendi, Amir H. Fallah, Ale Groen, Jean-Paul Lemieux, Robert Longo, Markus Lüpertz, Lavar Monroe, Marc Padeu, Salvatore Pinto, Phang Quang, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Stanley Spencer, Antoni Tapies, Arthur Timothy, Genesis Tramaine, Ray Turner, Caroline Walker, Grant Wood.

STANLEY SPENCER

1891-1959

Self Portrait, 1927