Facing history: contemporary portraiture

Disappointing exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum examining portraiture in contemporary art.

I say disappointing as I love portraits and looked forward to this show hoping for a good overview of where portraiture stood in art at the moment, what are the themes and who is involved. Instead this was a small show, just two rooms and just addressed the idea of how contemporary work adapts traditional or historic modes and others adapt the idea of official photographs.

There were interesting works and I particularly liked Tom Hunter’s Vermeer like photographs of homeless people including “Woman reading a possession order”. I also liked Bettina von Zwehl’s pictures from when she was artist in residence at the museum when she took 34 pictures of one of the assistants, Sophia Birikorang in the same location over time in the style of a miniature.

The show seemed to pick on good, known contemporary artists and look at what portraiture they’d done rather than giving an overview so interesting and some good works but not quite what it implied on the tin.

Closes on 24 Apr 2016

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