![]() Throughout my time interning, they’ve certainly kept that promise. She reassured me that she and the department are very accommodating to whatever my schedule would be. Even though I knew I had to learn an entirely new type of discipline, Gring answered any concerns I had. I knew next to nothing about archival processing then, but having Gring explain the department’s ongoing projects to me piqued my interest. Over the summer, I interviewed with archivist Heather Gring and discussed the kind of work I would be doing in the archives. So, I applied to various galleries around Buffalo and got a near-immediate response from the Burchfield-Penney Arts Center. As an artist myself, I figured that working with a gallery would give me experience that I could use in the future. One of which was student discounts I hadn't known about yet, but also interning somewhere relevant to one's studies. Not only all of the work I would have to put in the following year but the fact that I had yet to take advantage of certain opportunities that I had as a student. This provided a final understanding of portraiture, that of the historic record.As I was finishing up my junior year as a BFA in Illustration, the realities of graduation started setting in. When curating this exhibition, however, the criteria was that the artist and the subject have died. This means an historic portrait exhibition would not contain centuries old paintings of kings and queens, but rather the people who were a part of our community. Because of this, it spans only a small fraction of the time that artists have been making portraits. The Burchfield Penney Art Center’s collection is focused on the art and artists of Western New York. The subject does not know what the results will be, but the artist is motivated by his memory and desire to memorialize. The painting was made in honor of a friend who has died. Most notable in this category is the painting of Walter Budan, painted by John Mielcarek. An emotionally loaded situation, where the subject is represented by the feelings the artist has for the person. Lankes of Thundercloud, the subject represents a nationally known figure who had been painted by artists from around the world.įinally, there is the representation of the friend. ![]() This can be extended to subjects held in high regard. We have all seen images of the rulers of banks and countries. Possibly the most common portrait comes in the form of the ‘aristocrat’, used in this case to mean anyone in a position of honor. This is similar in the way that people compare themselves within their peer-groups - true of friends, colleagues, and enemies. There is the knowledge that in the end, you will be judged by a peer and judgment will be conflated by how a person feels about the quality of the work. The negotiation of representation, personality, and the general attitude of the subject is complicated. The only thing that equals the self-portrait, is when an artist creates a painting of another artist. ![]() It is as if your clothing, expression, and style of hair at any given point in your life remained the same forever. The material is always present, but the unavoidable attention to, and consideration of how one represents themselves in the world is the tantamount. Self-portraiture offers a complex position for the artist, as the subject. A modest selection from the numerous portraits in the Burchfield Penney’s collection, the focus in this exhibition is on four categories self-portraits, paintings of artists, ‘aristocrats’, and friends. Historic Portraits from the Collection is a counter-point to the exhibition, Contemporary Portraiture.
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