Face Value, Portraiture in the Age of Abstraction: " The dumbest, most moribund, out-of-date and shopworn of possible things you could do was to make a portrait."

Face Value, Portraiture in the Age of Abstraction: A Startling Freshness and A Touch of Defiance

Interior With Leland by Louisa Matthiasdottir, 1945-1946. Oil on canvas, (38 1/4 × 35 1/4"). Private collection

Face Value: Portraiture in the Age of Abstraction is featuring mid-20th century artists who were reinventing portraiture at a moment when almost everyone agreed that figuration was dead as a progressive art form. The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has gathered more than 50 paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture from approximately 1945 to 1975 to demonstrate the innovations of American portraiture despite the vogue for abstraction. The exhibition runs through Jan. 11, 2015.

During this period, Chuck Close recalled, "the dumbest, most moribund, out-of-date and shopworn of possible things you could do was to make a portrait." And yet, with startling freshness and a touch of defiance, a group of young artists demonstrated the value of exploring the face and figure.

"At a time when most artists viewed portraiture as dead or dying, these artists pressed forward with their work and explored new ways to represent the self," said Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery. "This collection of varying pieces is a testament to their determination and innovation that continues to influence artists today." Al Held and Sylvia Stone

Al Held and Sylvia Stone. Oil on canvas, 1968. Private collection, © Philip Pearlstein. Photograph courtesy of the artist and Betty Cuningham Gallery, Photograph by Philip Ennik

Philip Pearlstein moved away from abstraction in the 1960s and has since concentrated on painting what was in front of him, including a series of portraits. He focuses on "the human figure as a found object." Many of his subjects were friends from the art world, including the painter Al Held (1928 – 2005) and sculptor Sylvia Stone (1928 – 2011). They were all friends from Held's and Pearlstein's early days showing in galleries on Tenth Street, and both Stone and Pearlstein taught at Brooklyn College. But their work was different: Held was well known for his thick, visceral geometric abstractions, and Stone was experimenting with shaped canvases and geometric plexiglass sculptures. Pearlstein’s cropping and composition, creating sharp angles and psychological distancing, results in a portrait that is as "cool" as his subjects’ own work. As curator Frank Goodyear once noted, Pearlstein's subjects "arrive as individuals and leave as Pearlsteins."

Among the artists who pushed the boundaries of portrait traditions were Romare Bearden, Elaine de Kooning, Beauford Delaney, Alex Katz, Alice Neel, Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers, Andy Warhol and Jamie Wyeth. Inspired by the theories and ambitions of Abstract Expressionism and keenly attuned to the themes of their own turbulent times, they reinterpreted human portrayal, reinventing portraiture for the next generation.

The show includes a portrait of the poet John Ashbery by Fairfield Porter. The museum commissioned Ashbery to compose a poem for the catalog. "Hand with a Picture" reflects abstractly on the era and his many friendships with artists. The 175-page fully illustrated publication, Face Value: Portraiture in the Age of Abstraction, includes essays by the curators.

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Face Value, Portraiture in the Age of Abstraction: A Startling Freshness and A Touch of Defiance

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