Portraits are among the oldest themes of the fine arts, long reflecting cultural-historical phenomena, too. This exhibition spans a period from the 19th century through the interwar period and the portents of ‘mass culture’ in Pop Art, up to current portraits, for which new media are also now employed.
In Romanticism and Expressionism, one attempted to penetrate the soul of the subject depicted by means of the face. In Realism, by way of contrast, representation of bourgeois self-image was of primary concern. From the 1960s onwards, general artistic-visual issues were treated via the portrait, too, and never have portraits been more pervasive than is the case today: ‘selfies’ leave their mark on all areas of life in this age of social media.
