• Till Friewald

    Till Freiwald (Peruvian, born 1963), Untitled, 1997. Watercolor with graphite on paper, 92 x 60 inches. Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, N.Y., Gift of The Carol and Arthur Goldberg Collection, 2012.29.1

  • Alex Katz, Dark Sunglasses

    Alex Katz (American, born 1927), Dark Glasses, 1989. Oil on linen, 40 x 112 inches. Art Bridges © 2019 Alex Katz / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Contemporary Portraits’ Split Reference

NOW ON VIEW


Pictures of friends or family, celebrities or total strangers, candidly or carefully composed, are intimate invitations to look directly and deeply. What are we really seeing when we look at a painted portrait? Naturally our responses differ depending on how the figures are presented to us. But our ability to take in at a glance how a sitter has been depicted and to surmise why, relies on the subtleties of the portrait’s identity as determined by the gaze of the artist and that of the sitter.