Having recently returned from New York where I saw two wonderful portraiture exhibitions I’ve been thinking a lot about portraiture lately, and the role it has played in the history of art. At the Neue Galerie, I saw Gustav Klimt’s portrait Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1907 along with the numerous pencil drawing studies for the work; the subject of the documentary Stealing Klimts, shown last year at the Jewish Museum in Miami Beach and more recently the Hollywood version Woman in Gold.
Gustav Klimt, Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1907
Oil, silver, and gold on canvas
55 1/8 x 55 1/8 in (140 x 140 cm)
Neue Galerie, New York
This acquisition made available in part through the generosity of the heirs of the Estates of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-BauerI have been a devotee of Klimt since I first saw his drawings in a small exhibition in Rome and later his masterpieces at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, Austria. Visiting the works at the Neue Galerie felt like visiting old friends— the setting beyond comparison. At the Brooklyn Museum I saw Kehinde Wiley’s first major retrospective of his contemporary portraiture, A New Republic, another brilliant exhibition of portraits another artist whose work I have admired since seeing it on the Cover of Art in America in 2003.
Helena Rubinstein: Beauty is Power
The Boca Raton Museum of Art
April 21 through July 12, 2015
Kehinde Wiley
Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps
2005, Oil on canvas
Collection of Suzi and Andrew B. CohenMeanwhile here in South Florida, the Boca Raton Museum of Art is exhibiting Helena Rubinstein: Beauty is Power, works collected from private collections lovingly pieced back together for a traveling exhibition which started at the Jewish Museum in New York. With all of these portrait exhibitions, I am struck by fact that the commissioning of a portrait by prominent art patrons has largely disappeared from important contemporary art collections. The last collection I recall seeing with a portrait of the collector herself was that of Dorothy Blau, the Bal Harbour gallerist and private dealer who had her portrait by Andy Warhol hanging in her dining room. I vividly recall sitting with her at her home full of exquisite works by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring tucked between a family Xavier Lallane sheep and her proudly telling me about the portrait she had commissioned by Andy Warhol.
Throughout the ages, artists have been commissioned to create portraits of their patrons to hang in their homes usually in a distinguished location. Often, it was how artists supported themselves. While very common in the nineteenth century among the elite, highly realistic portraits in oil on canvas became less in-vogue after the introduction of the camera, which was able to more perfectly capture the countenance of the subject— an example of the camera as disruptive innovation. Today, commissioned portraits it seems have gone away, with the exception of the generic corporate “head shot” while family portraits in more relaxed settings seem to be more acceptable in contemporary society.
As I toured the Boca Museum of Art’s jewel of an exhibition of Helena Rubinstein’s collection assembled, Beauty as Power, I could not help but have the feeling of exaltation while viewing Portrait of Helena Rubinstein, 1934 by Marie Laurencin. There is something of the painting that is completely mesmerizing having nothing to do with its subject, Helena Rubinstein herself. You look at the painting and wonder what was the occasion commemorating the portrait, how did she decide what to wear, what significance does the scarf or the earrings she wears hold? Did she sit for the portrait or were photographs taken? Were any studies done prior to the final painting? Did she have any input into the final painting? In fact, one could create an entire fictional story each more interesting than the next about this portrait—if you had the inclination, that is.
Anthony Japour is an art collector and art advisor. Japour lectures on the Chinese Contemporary Art Movement and its relationship to the pillars of Western Contemporary Art. For over a decade [2002-2012], Japour mounted numerous art exhibitions and installations in Miami Beach and South Florida through AJ Japour Gallery and linked these exhibitions to charity events at his home in South Beach devoted to the health, education and welfare of children. Japour has served on the Fine Arts Board and the Cultural Arts Council of the City of Miami Beach. Japour has been a contributor writing on contemporary art for SocialMiami.com since 2010.