Close Up

The portrait offers the possibility of observation and introspection, and is at the same time one of the most private and representative artistic genres. But what distinguishes the specifically female gaze? On the occasion of the major fall exhibition 2021 at Fondation Beyeler, this catalog brings together nine women artists from Europe and America from the beginning of modernism to the present day, whose works represent an outstanding contribution to the history of the portrait. The individual view of the artists on themselves and on their surroundings in the course of time is expressed. In the catalog, renowned authors explore the individual artists and their fascinating ways of reflecting on themselves and on others.

The featured artists are Mary Cassatt, Marlene Dumas, Frida Kahlo, Lotte Laserstein, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Berthe Morisot, Alice Neel, Elizabeth Peyton, and Cindy Sherman.

Gender interventions and formal innovations in female portraiture, through works by Kahlo, Sherman, Neel, Dumas, Peyton and more This superbly conceived publication looks at nine women artists whose careers were devoted primarily to portraiture, analyzing both the work they produced and the unique ways in which each artist captured her subjects' likenesses and the spaces they inhabited. These artists represent the development of modernist art since 1870; each has made significant contributions to art history as they complicate long-held notions of the gaze and explore the relationship between the self, the subject and the artist. Close-Up examines women painters and photographers who are known primarily for self-portraiture, such as Paula Modersohn-Becker, Frida Kahlo and Cindy Sherman; it also looks at female artists who depicted the daily lives of women and children in a creative environment that was largely disinterested in such subjects, such as Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt and Lotte Laserstein. Still other women--Alice Neel, Marlene Dumas and Elizabeth Peyton--embrace familiarity completely and depict friends and family as well as famous figures in their paintings. In essays by nine different authors, these artists and their subjects are considered individually and as part of a chronology of modern portraiture, with an emphasis on the dynamics of gender.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.