Anti-Portraiture : Challenging the Limits of the Portrait : Challenging the Limits of the Portrait

"The portrait has historically been understood as an artistic representation of a human subject. Its purpose was to provide a visual or psychological likenesses or an expression of personal, familial or social identity; it was typically associated with the privileged individual subject of Western modernity. Recent scholarship in the humanities and social sciences however has responded to the complex nature of twenty-first century subjectivity and proffered fresh conceptual models and theories to analyse it. The contributors to Anti-Portraiture examine subjectivity via a range of media including sculpture, photography and installation, and make a convincing case for an expanded definition of portraiture. By offering a timely reappraisal of the terms through which this genre is approached, the chapter authors volunteer new paradigms in which to consider selfhood, embodiment and representation. In doing so they further this exciting academic debate and challenge the curatorial practices and acquisition policies of museums and galleries."-- Provided by publisher Cover Half Title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Figures Contributors Acknowledgements 1 Introducing the anti-portrait (Fiona Johnstone and Kirstie Imber) 2 Decapitations: The portrait, the anti-portrait ... and what comes after? (Michael Newman) 3 An anti-portraitist in the realm of letters: Gertrude Stein’s theory of seeing (Ery Shin) 4 ‘A whole man, made of all men’: Giacometti, existentialism and the ‘singular universal’ (Véronique Wiesinger) 5 ‘Closeness, or the appearance of closeness’: Robert Morris’s critical self-portraits and the expanding artworld of 1960s Ame 6 Subjects unknown: Found images and the depersonalization of portraiture (Ella Mudie) 7 Subject/object: Seeking the self in Susan Aldworth’s portraits of schizophrenia (Julia Beaumont-Jones) 8 Hiding in plain sight: Gazing at Laura Swanson’s Anti-Self-Portraits (Kristin Lindgren) 9 Filling the narrative void: Material portraits in the Chilean post-dictatorship (Megan Corbin) 10 Relics, remains and other objects: Non-mimetic portraiture in the age of aids (Fiona Johnstone) Index "The portrait has historically been understood as an artistic representation of a human subject. Its purpose was to create visual or psychological likenesses or the expression of personal, familial or social identity; it was typically associated with the privileged individual. Recent scholarship in the humanities and social sciences however has responded to the complex nature of twenty-first century subjectivity and proffered fresh conceptual models and theories to analyse it. The contributors to Anti-Portraiture examine individuality via a range of media including sculpture, photography, installation and sound art, and make a convincing case for an expanded definition of portraiture. By offering a timely re-appraisal of the terms through which this art form is approached, the authors volunteer new paradigms in which to consider selfhood, embodiment and representation. In doing so they further this exciting academic debate and challenge the curatorial practices and acquisition policies of museums and galleries"-- Provided by publisher