Portraits: Paris
A reflection of inner self, a canvas for projection and a testing ground for experimentation, the artistic portrait has never been confined to a mere depiction of a subject’s physical appearance. From profile portraits on ancient coins to the almost dissolved figures that emerged in the 20th century, each work speaks of a subject, an artist and an era.
For this exhibition, Mayoral brings together works by Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Marc Chagall, Antonio Saura, Fernando Botero, Jean Dubuffet, Alexander Calder, Roy Lichtenstein and Niki de Saint Phalle, alongside contemporary works by Marria Pratts and José Luis Barquero. This journey through very different eras and artistic languages invites the viewer to reflect on what it means to depict a figure: to capture a presence, to suggest an identity, to convey the world that is an individual.
The affectionate familiarity of a portrait of a loved one captured on the spot, such as Picasso’s Visage d’Homme (Stehelin), contrasts with the interplay of colour and composition in Joan Miró’s almost scattered Woman, and with Botero’s voluminous and sensual archetype. Whilst the former captures individual singularity, the others erase identity to highlight artistic experimentation. The portrait thus becomes at times a moment of intimate observation and at other times a pretext for formal exploration.
The dialogue between the works therefore reveals connections between the modern era, the post-war period and contemporary creations, and highlights the extent to which the representation of the other remains a space for expressive freedom. Each portrait invites us to look and to be looked at, to put ourselves in the shoes of the artist and their model, feel the intensity of the human encounter depicted, and ask ourselves what these works reveal about us.
What does every gesture, every posture, every facial expression tell us? What does this reveal about the way each era views the individual? What will our portraits say about us and our present?
