ICP's "Face to Face": Portraits of Luminaries in the Arts by Three of the Most Prominent Portraitists of Our Time

Tacita Dean, Brigitte Lacombe, and Catherine Opie can be considered three of the most prominent portraitists of our time and their recognition as such is clear in the International Center of Photography's upcoming exhibition.

Showing January 27 through May 1, 2023, ICP will exhibit ''Face to Face: Portraits of Artists by Tacita Dean, Brigitte Lacombe and Catherine Opie'' as organized by renowned writer and curator Helen Molesworth.

“These pictures and films offer us formality and intimacy, patience and curiosity, and the thrill of an unguarded moment,” said curator Helen Molesworth in the exhibition’s press release. “I see all three artists involved in making pictures that are not only in dialogue with their given subjects, but also with the history of the genre of portraiture and the medium of photography. Art is many things, but for artists it is a way of talking to each other through pictures. It’s a transhistorical game of stealing and borrowing techniques, paying homage to one another’s triumphs— a constant call and response.”

“Face to Face” will feature more than 50 photographs by Lacombe and Opie as well as two films by Dean, including portraits of compelling cultural figures such as Maya Angelou, Louise Bourgeois, Joan Didian, Rick Owens, Martin Scorsese, and Patti Smith, just to name a few.

The often-overlapping subjects presented by the exhibition are immortalized by the three artists while investigating the charged genre of portraiture, one that carries both a sense of intimacy and exposure.

“[...] The exhibition offers a unique opportunity to see three of the most accomplished imagemakers of our time approach the subject of portraiture from their distinctly different vantage points, broadening our understanding of contemporary lens based work,” said David E. Little, executive director of ICP in the press release.

Dean’s films are studies of time and everyday life as it unfolds before the camera. Her two films featured in the upcoming exhibition include “Portraits” (2016), which captures artist David Hockney’s approach to art in his Los Angeles studio and “One Hundred and Fifty Years of Painting” (2021), which records a conversation between 99-year-old painter Luchita Hurtado and 49-year-old artist Julie Mehretu.

Lacombe’s work in the exhibition offers a selection of her studio portraits as well as portraits of artists in their own studios and can be described as a who’s who of the second half of the 20th century. She also has a long term project of shooting set pictures on Martin Scorsese’s movie sets which show artists at work and an ongoing portrait of the director over time.

Opie is most well-known for her early images of members of the LGBTQ community, using traditional portraiture to bring underrepresented people into the mainstream of contemporary culture. More recently, however, she did a dedicated series of portraits of artists. Her featured photographs in the exhibit span from 1993 to 2019 and include portraits of Justin Bond, Thelma Golden, Miranda July, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, and others.

''Face to Face'' will be on view from January 27 through May 1, 2023 at the International Center of Photography in New York City.

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written by eloffreno on 2023-01-11 #culture #people #museum #event #show #exhibition #icp