Portrait

Two Black women, one older and one younger, look down at a glass case with photographs in it.

Two people walk past a group of people sitting in a couch made of Coca Cola crates looking at a yellow wall with artwork hung on it.

Two life-sized, nude models made of flesh-colored photographs of a white man face each other in front of a white wall with two rows of photographs.

An abstract painting of two Black men in green suits merged together with a black, blue, and purple background hanging on a white wall.

A portrait is a representation of an individual; in the visual arts, a portrait might be a literal depiction of someone’s body or face or a presentation of symbols that suggest aspects of someone’s personality. But how much can a single image reveal about a person’s true self, and how do artistic decisions affect how the self is communicated? Perhaps a portrait is more accurately a starting point from which to develop a more complex understanding of what makes someone who they are.

Explore portraiture by clicking on the images above and browsing the content below.

Explore collection stories—texts, videos, and creative responses from faculty, students, artists, scholars, and curators to works in the Tang collection.

A young woman in a 19th century black and white photograph sits in a chair and raises a glass.

Deborah Luster’s One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana

A photograph of a young, Black woman in a red floral dress smiling holding a red umbrella in front of a light blue background with red and yellow flowers.

Malick Sidibé, Des chaussures pour aller danser, 1963

Numerous black and white photographs of Black and Brown people in colorful frames on a white wall.

Njideka Akunyili Crosby on

Malick Sidibé

A young, tanned, Native woman sits in a fake fall landscape wearing a bright red and blue dress with her hair in two braids with a blow-up deer behind her.

Wendy Red Star on

Dioramas and Representations of Native Culture

A group of six light-skinned people wearing black leather, spikes, piercings, and colorful hair stand side by side on a city sidewalk.

Ellis and Anna Mae Thomas (from Places of Our Own), 2009-2010

A young, tanned woman sits on a colorful couch smiling at an older, tanned, Middle Eastern man who sits next to her.

Hannah Traore ’17 interviews

Hassan Hajjaj

An older, light-skinned woman sits with her hands pressed to either side of her head.

Tough Life Diary

Nancy Grossman

A checklist with text on the left and thumbnail images of black and white photographs on the right.

View or download the checklist here!

Teaching Ideas

Professor of History Jordana Dym led students in “LA305: Working with Latin American and Latinx Communities” on a volunteer trip to Guatemala, where they documented their experiences. To prepare, students visited the Tang to look at how photographers have documented people and landscapes in Latin America.

Students compared composition, subject, and framing in photographs by Manuel Álvarez Bravo and Flor Garduño, discussing the impact of such choices on understanding the peoples and places depicted. To encourage thoughtful documentation on their trip, each student composed a photograph on their cell phone in the style of one of the works discussed and then displayed the two together, inviting conversation.

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A checklist with text on the left and thumbnail images of paintings on the right.

View or download the checklist here!

Teaching Ideas

Associate Professor of Art Janet Sorensen’s “AR201: Painting I” class looked at portraits from the Tang collection that include paint as a medium.

Students were asked to create self-portraits, and Sorensen held a class discussion comparing and contrasting formal portrait painting to conceptual portraits that explore metaphor or perhaps even conceal identity. Students’ understanding of what defines a “portrait” was broadened by viewing this selection of artwork from the Tang collection.

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Close-Looking Exercise

For a visual literacy assignment related to Atong Atem’s Fruit of the Earth, download the PDF below. Interested in other artwork from the collection? Contact Assistant Director for Curatorial Affairs Rachel Seligman.

View or download the close-looking exercise here!