"Here I am - What We See and Think We Know"
2004-04-10 until 2004-06-27
Frye Art Museum
Seattle, WA, USA

"A portrait is a likeness in which there is something wrong about the mouth," John Singer Sargent once groused. Portraiture defies description. We might think we know a portrait when we see one, yet the difficulty of describing its detail leads many to exasperation. The Frye Museum opens it Portraiture exhibit featuring renowned artists Gilbert Stuart, John Singleton Copley, Thomas Eakins, Nicolai Fechin, Franz von Lenbach, Winold Reiss, John Singer Sargent, William Beckman, Alice Neel, and Robert McCurdy on Saturday, April 10.

The Frye Art Museum's newest exhibition, Here I Am! Passages in Portraiture, allows you to look at some old friends and new acquaintances to come to your own definition. According to Debra Byrne, curator, "The magic of portraiture can be pegged to that vital moment of expectation-a space of desire, if you will-when the viewer pursues and the picture seemingly promises a significant revelation about the person being portrayed. In the course of looking, the imagination of the spectator confers a correspondence between outer signs referenced in the image and the inner personality of the sitter. In this manner the art of the portrait is transformed into a stage for the revelation of human character."

Drawn from the Museum's collection of paintings and drawings that range from the 19th century to the present, the exhibition features works of portraiture with wide ranging style. Visitors are encouraged to use their own creative talents to express their views through text or image on a chalkboard that is included as part of the exhibit.

IMAGE
Leopold Schmutzler
(Austrian, 1864–1941)
Here I Am, oil on board,
40.5 x 29 in.
Charles and Emma Frye Collection

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of Washington

Other Important Exhibitions in United States