Facing Ourselves

Downtown

When

Ongoing

Days vary, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Where

Portland Art Museum

1219 SW Park Ave
Portland, OR 97205

Portraiture is about truth and honesty, both in how subjects choose to be portrayed and in how artists present those subjects. During the Renaissance, portraiture was tied to humanism, which values the individual. Artists sought to recover the art of portraiture known from Greek and Roman antiquities. However, there is a universal tendency to embellish, and the Roman examples in this survey of the Museum’s European and American portraits are stylized and simplified. Maybe all portraits are about relationships and the intensity of the encounter between artist and subject. Not every portrait is a picture, however.

This gallery features European and American art in photography, painting and sculpture. It includes epitaph inscription slabs from ancient Roman tombs, a coat of arms, and a reliquary.  The works in this gallery represent the diversity of our community as well as of our collection, and span thousands of years, and many continents and are done in many styles. They also challenge the idea of what is understood by Europe — proud Syrian Romans in togas, for example, speak from their tombstones, in Aramaic.