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Indepth Arts News:
"The Public Portrait:
Photographs by Edward Steichen, Richard
Avedon, and Irving Penn"
2000-07-09 until 2000-10-22
Museum of Fine Art Houston
Houston, TX,
USA
The portrait conceived specifically for public
display is one of the oldest pictorial genres.
The subjects of public portraits are often
famous -- in the news because of their talent,
intellect, wit, or power. In creating a public
portrait, an artist is challenged to invent a
fresh appearance for a familiar visage.
American photographers Edward Steichen
(1879 -- 1973), Richard Avedon (born 1923),
and Irving Penn (born 1917) are among the
20th century's greatest portraitists. Working
both independently and for major magazines
such as Vanity Fair, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar,
and the New Yorker, each has developed a
striking, signature style. The Public Portrait
features their incisive and engaging
portrayals of eminent personalities from the
1920s to today: movie stars (including Greta
Garbo and Douglas Fairbanks); artists and
composers (Auguste Rodin and Igor
Stravinsky); writers (Sherwood Anderson and
H. L. Mencken); politicians (Winston Churchill
and Ann Richards); and royalty (the duke and
duchess of Windsor), selected from the MFAH
collection. Baron Adolf de Meyer, Baroness
Olga de Meyer, c. 1900,
Platinum
photograph,
The Museum of Fine
Arts,Houston,
The Sonia and Kaye
Marvins Portrait Collection,
museum
purchase with funds
provided by Sonia
and Kaye Marvins.
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