About Face: Portraiture in the Ahmanson Collection
- Jul 18, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 3, 2025
November 17, 2024 - December 17, 2024
December 18, 2024 - January 16, 2025 Closed for the holiday season
January 17, 2025 - 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.
Derrick Adams 1970 - Beauty World (aka Style Variation Grid 8), 2019 Acrylic paint and graphite on d entile Bellini (School of) 1429-1507 PORTRAIT OF A YOUTH, 15th / 16th Century Unsigned, no date Oil Peter Brandes 1944 - Sowing Man (RED) (aka Kibbutz sædemand), 2011-12 Signed on lower left recto and Andrea Büttner 1972 - Dancing Nuns, 2007 Woodcut Two parts, each: 70.5 x 45 Framed: 72.25 x 89.75 x Mary Cassatt 1845-1926 A Kiss for Baby Anne (No. 1 ), 1897 c. Signed "Mary Cassatt" in black chalk, Jacques Louis David 1748-1825 (Manner of) Portrait of a Man, c. 1835 Curatorial records note a faint Kieran Dodds 1980 - Joshua Elliott, Muscogee (Creek), Broken Arrow, OK, 2024 Giclée pigment print on Iwan Effendi 1979 - Lace 2: HIS, 2020 Papier-mâche mask, washi paper, graphite, charcoal, soft paste Amir H. Fallah 1979 Cowgirl, 2020 Acrylic, spray paint, and collage on canvas 72 x 72 (round) Ale Groen Thin Man Thinking, 2011 Not visibly signed. Carved and laminated birch plywood 31 x 24 x 7 Lavar Munroe 1982 - FAITH, HOPE & LOVE, 2021 Acrylic, spray paint, mirror beads, doll, faux birds, f Marc Padeu 1990 - The Blue Man of Njombé, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 82.25 x 105.125, 1.375 Salvatore Pinto 1905-1966 Young black bride/communion Signed LL "Pinto" 30 x 24 Phan Quang Native Country #1, 2013 Digital C print on archival paper Edition 1 of 3 Nathaniel Mary Quinn Love You, Nephew, 2018 Signed, titled, and dated verso Black charcoal, gouache, Stanley Spencer 1891-1959 Self Portrait, 1927 Signed and dated "Stanley Spencer 1927" in pencil lowe Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto 1518-1594 Portrait of a Venetian Nobleman (aka A Nobleman, His Left Hand R Genesis Tramaine 1983 - St. Obed, 2021 Acrylic, oil sticks, oil pastels, Puddy and the Holy Spirit 7 Domenico Veneziano 1410-1461 Portrait of a Young Florentine Lady, Mid 15th century Not visibly signe Grant Wood 1891-1942 Practical Idealist, 1936 Signed and dated "Grant Wood 1936" in pencil, lower ed
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
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