Immortal Likeness:

Portraits from the Permanent Collection

June 13 - August 27, 2006
Wilbur Room

The history of Western portraiture has its roots in ancient Greece, where, in the 4th century B.C.E., coin portraits of Alexander the Great and portrait busts of notable figures and statesmen, such as Socrates and Plato, offered a mode of pictorial representation that increasingly emphasized individual attributes over collective ideals. Since then, the genre has been linked to the depiction of likeness, a concept that belies the fact that any portrait is inevitably shaped by a complex network of social conventions and artistic traditions.

Portraits represent encounters between artists and subjects. Consequently, a portrait does not simply describe an individual, but rather actively engages issues of identity, perception, representation, and self-presentation. The Fleming Museum's collection includes notable portraits by artists ranging from Anthony van Dyck and Rembrandt van Rijn to Max Beckmann, Margaret Bourke-White, and Amedeo Modigliani. Featuring prints, drawings, watercolors, and photographs, Immortal Likeness offers an eye onto the various ways that Western artists have balanced the genre's claims to likeness against shifting social and artistic practices.