Portraiture + Self + Society

Catalog description

This course explores the recent resurgence in practice and performance of portraiture. From venerated oil paintings to family snapshots to social media profiles, this course investigates the practice performance, and social function of the portrait. Students query the role that portraits play in the formation of individual and collective identities from the late 19th to 21st centuries. Considering the histories of representation, we critically examine the ways in which the social constructs of race, gender, class, and orientation determine how we look at others and ourselves.