Throughout art history, portraits have fulfilled a range of social and cultural functions from official tributes to family homages to idealizations of the anonymous everyman. Modern artists have continued this tradition and have also used faces to evoke a panoply of expressive states. Contemporary artists have found increasingly inventive and conceptual approaches to this traditional genre. This exhibition of approximately fifty works draws from the Museum’s unparalleled holdings of modern and contemporary prints and showcases numerous recent acquisitions never before on view. Among the artists represented are Max Beckmann, Pablo Picasso, Richard Hamilton, and Sherrie Levine.
Organized by Wendy Weitman, Associate Curator, Department of Prints and Illustrated Books.
