The goal of a great painter is to make a great painting. If it's also a portrait, ok. James Valerio's portrait of me is in the collection of the Union League Club of Chicago. He's doing another "portrait" right now of me and my wife (although we are models in this large allegorical painting).
Most portraits of officials, CEOs and others, done today are run of the mill painted photographs but the National Portrait Gallery , Smithsonian D.C., has some terrific portraits, some quite recent. Phillip Pearlstein did a portrait of Hanna Gray, one time president of the Univ. Chicago. of course, Lucian Freud has done some of the most outstanding contemporary portraits. And I suppose we shouldn't forget Andy Warhol. Unless you're doing a historical figure, most portraits are done on commission, so that limits the artist's opportunity to exhibit, etc. Yet lots of artists today are doing them. Again, Miller's assumption re portraiture leads his comments. If he were aware of the breadth of the whole art scene, he'd realize that all the stuff in painting that was ever done is still being done, some of it top quality. wc wc ----- Original Message ---- From: Chris Miller <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thu, December 3, 2009 12:57:12 PM Subject: Re: Contemporary Portraits This is the first time I've hard the word "effete" applied to portrait painting. What about portrait sculpture? Is that regarded as effete as well? Either way, I don't think 'effete' is a quality that especially excludes things from art museums in our era, is it? Are there any art critics who still use it as a pejoritive term? Are there any who still use its opposite, "virile" or "manly" , as a positive term? But thanks for reminding us about photography, Lew - and yes, I do remember a few exhibits of late 20th C. portrait photography at my local museum, most recently by Josef Karsh. As I recall, our local art critic torched that exhibit because he felt that Karsh was just applying a cookie-cutter kind of "greatness" to all the famous people being portrayed. Which is to say -- he felt that Karsh had failed to unconceal the distinct truth about each of them. >I think most contemporary portraiture is done by photographers, and traditional oil & canvas is regarded as effete. ____________________________________________________________ Nutrition Improve your career health. Click now to study nutrition! http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2231/c?cp=iJ8GJxPnIOYK6raItBaNqQAAJz6c l_zTaptgNR5c8Mer1v9kAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASQwAAAAA=
