In each issue of American Fine Art Magazine we take a close look at a particular genre and in this one we turn our attention to American portraiture, from the stoic portraits of George Washington created by Gilbert Stuart at the dawn of the 19th century to Alice Neel’s frank 1967 portrait of a mother and daughter.
I think we will all agree that a major draw of historic art is the treasure trove of information it contains about the past. Paintings and sculpture can be beautiful for beauty’s sake, but I’ve come to see art as a present waiting to be unwrapped, a gift riddled with clues that need deciphering to reveal the richness of what’s inside.
That’s where the scholars and experts come in, to illuminate what we might have missed otherwise. We bring in the leaders in the field to show us what a singular piece of art—or whole movements—can tell us about a specific moment in time by examining the surface to see what lies beneath.
All genres of historic art are windows into the past and a reflection of the times, but what I learned in the process of putting together our portraiture section is that it is as important, if not more important, to pay attention to the people left out the picture as it is to those immortalized within gilt frames. What is not there is as revealing as what it is.
In a preview of the exhibition About Face: 250 Years of American Portraiture, Mattatuck Museum director Bob Burns tells us, “While landscapes capture the setting, portraiture captures the soul and social hierarchy of an era…By seeing whose stories were preserved and whose were left out, we [hope people will have] a deeper understanding of how portraiture continues to shape, and be shaped by, the American experience.”
Every month, as we wrap up this magazine, I walk away knowing a lot more than I did beforehand. It is our hope that you do too. And if there is a subject within our country’s art history you would like to learn more about from the people who know it best, please let me know and I’ll do my best to deliver it to you in an upcoming issue.
Sarah Gianelli
Managing Editor
sgianelli@americanartcollector.com
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