People have been documenting their lives by different methods since ancient times. If we go back to the prehistoric times, to cave or rock paintings, we would learn a lot about the people, about their life styles, how they survived or how they communicated, what they believed in… They narrated the wars of their gods and generally painted their portraits. This habit continued in the art of the ancient civilizations of the Fertile Crescent, especially in Egypt, depictions of rulers and gods abound. Portrait painting of notables in China probably goes back to over 1000 B.C., though none survive from that age. Existing Chinese portraits go back to about 1000 A.D.

Court portrait of Emperor Shenzong of Song (r. 1067-1085), Chinese

From literary evidence we know that ancient Greek painting included portraiture, often highly accurate if the praises of writers are to be believed, but no painted examples remain. Sculpted heads of rulers and famous personalities like Socrates survive in some quantity, and like the individualized busts of Hellenistic rulers on coins, show that Greek portraiture could achieve a good likeness, and subjects were depicted with relatively little flattery. The successors of Alexander the Great began the practice of adding his head to their coins, and were soon using their own. Roman portraiture adopted traditions of portraiture from both the Etruscans and Greeks, and developed a very strong tradition, linked to their religious use of ancestor portraits, as well as Roman politics. Again, the few painted survivals, in the Fayum portraits(is the modern term for a type of realistic painted portraits on wooden boards attached to mummies from Roman Egypt), Tomb of Aline and the Severan Tondo, all from Egypt under Roman rule, are clearly provincial productions that reflect Greek rather than Roman styles, but we have a wealth of sculpted heads, including many individualized portraits from middle-class tombs, and thousands of types of coin portraits. Now coins and tombs are in my opinion the first time that portraits were used as a communicative tool for the present community.

In the middle ages, there were donor portraits, initially mostly of popes in Roman mosaics, and illuminated manuscripts.  Between 1350-1400, secular figures began to reappear in frescos and panel paintings.  Around the end of the century, the first oil portraits of contemporary individuals, painted on small wood panels, emerged in Burgundy and France, first as profiles, then in other views.

The Wilton Diptych of ca. 1400 is one of two surviving panel portraits of Richard II of England

The Renaissance marked a turning point in the history of portraiture. Partly out of interest in the natural world and partly out of interest in the classical cultures of ancient Greece and Rome, portraits—both painted and sculpted—were given an important role in Renaissance society and valued as objects, and as depictions of earthly success and status. Painting in general reached a new level of balance, harmony, and insight. There were many great artists in this period and they were supported by rich, noble families from different cities.

Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait, 1500

Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of Sir Thomas More, 1527

During the Baroque and Rococo periods (17th century and 18th century, respectively), portraits became even more important records of status and position. In a society dominated increasingly by secular leaders in powerful courts, images of opulently attired figures were a means to affirm the authority of important individuals. Flemish painters Sir Anthony van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens excelled at this type of portraiture, while Jan Vermeer produced portraits mostly of the middle class, at work and play indoors.

Rembrandt group portrait, The Syndics of the Clothmaker’s Guild, 1662.

In the late 18th century and early 19th century, neoclassical artists continued the tradition of depicting subjects in the latest fashions, which for women by then, meant diaphanous gowns derived from ancient Greek and Roman clothing styles. The artists used directed light to define texture and the simple roundness of faces and limbs. French painters Jacques-Louis David and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres demonstrated virtuosity in this draftsman-like technique as well as a keen eye for character. Ingres, a student of David, is notable for his portraits in which a mirror is painted behind the subject to simulate a rear view of the subject.  His portrait of Napoleon on his imperial throne is a tour de force of regal portraiture.

The development of photography in the 19th century had a significant effect on portraiture, supplanting the earlier camera obscura which had also been previously used as an aid in painting. Many modernists flocked to the photography studios to have their portraits made, including Baudelaire who, though he proclaimed photography an “enemy of art”, found himself attracted to photography’s frankness and power. By providing a cheap alternative, photography supplanted much of the lowest level of portrait painting. Some realist artists, such as Thomas Eakins and Edgar Degas, were enthusiastic about camera photography and found it to be a useful aid to composition.

Other early 20th-century artists also expanded the repertoire of portraiture in new directions. Fauvist artist Henri Matisse produced powerful portraits using non-naturalistic, even garish, colors for skin tones. Cézanne’s relied on highly simplified forms in his portraits, avoiding detail while emphasizing color juxtapositions. Austrian Gustav Klimt’s unique style applied Byzantine motifs and gold paint to his memorable portraits. His pupil Oskar Kokoschka was an important portraitist of the Viennese upper class. Prolific Spanish artist Pablo Picasso painted many portraits, including several cubist renderings of his mistresses, in which the likeness of the subject is grossly distorted to achieve an emotional statement well beyond the bounds of normal caricature.

Henri Matisse, The Green Stripe, Portrait of Madame Matisse, 1905

By the 1960s and 1970s, there was a revival of portraiture. English artists such as Lucian Freud (grandson of Sigmund Freud) and Francis Bacon have produced powerful paintings. Bacon’s portraits are notable for their nightmarish quality. In May 2008, Freud’s 1995 portrait Benefits Supervisor Sleeping was sold by auction by Christie’s in New York City for $33.6 million, setting a world record for sale value of a painting by a living artist. Many contemporary American artists, such as Andy Warhol, Alex Katz and Chuck Close, have made the human face a focal point of their work. Warhol’s painting of Marilyn Monroe is an iconic example. Close’s specialty was huge, hyper-realistic wall-sized “head” portraits based on photographic images.

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962, 2,054 cm × 1,448 cm., (809 in × 570 in), Tate Gallery, London

Portraits of Power

Finally, the reason why I wanted to do this summary about portraits in visual communication history. I found about this interactive portfolio of portraits by Platon of world leaders, with commentary by the photographer. I think this is a brilliant work and it’s fully communicative specially with the comments of the photograher. Every single person whom I have shared this link loved it and listened to the every single comment of every photograf. Since I am from Turkey, I’ m publishing the “leader” of this country: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

You should definitely check out the portraits of other leaders and listen to the comments. There are different stories happening behind the frame. Don’t forget to read the text aswell.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/multimedia/2009/12/07/091207_audioslideshow_platon#ixzz0YwVrCcXe

Collaboration between the Pirates * CIA * Stereofarm * Graffiti6 * Spring69

for more information: http://designmind.frogdesign.com/

Gürbüz Doğan Ekşioğlu  is a Turkish cartoonist and graphics designer. He has been drawing cartoons since 1977 and holds a total of 64 awards (23 of which are international). He participated in many national and international collective displays and also had nine solo exhibitions including one in New York. His cartoons and illustrations were published in various newspapers and magazines, such as Forbes, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and on five covers of The New Yorker, including the famous one dated 15 September 2003, a special edition for the second anniversary of 11 September 2001 attacks, and the “On the Edge” of the 5 October, 2009 issue, which features a signature Ekşioğlu cat motif.

and some other examples:

From the book, Social Justice 2008

Album cover of The Chemical Brothers

The Serif

Although photography is a very powerful tool of visual documentation, because we have an easy acess to every image we want I don’t think that we really understand the meaning of looking and observing something from every aspect.  These realistic illustrations from 17th and 18th Centuries represent directly the idea of those periods. I can clearly see that, those people weren’t only looking but understanding, discovering the world around them. They were being illuminated and documenting what they are being witnessed at for other people. One discovering her/his self, studying carefully these plants, animals, the world around them is something that we don’t have today. People don’t pay attantion to the rest of the world being only occupied with themselves. It’s obvious that because of this lack of interest and curiosity we are becoming more trapped in our little, isolated lives and missing all the beauty.

Here some botanical illustrations by William Curtis (1746 – 1799) :

Some more names from the same period:

• Johann Wilhelm Weinmann (1683-1741)
• Pierre Joseph Redouté (1759-l840)
• Johann Wilhelm Weinmann (1683-1741)

• Sydney Parkinson

For more information:

http://internt.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/nature-online/endeavour-botanical/

http://www.citrinitas.com/history_of_viscom/masters.html

Wabi-sabi in Japanese arts

Many Japanese arts over the past thousand years have been influenced by Zen and Mahayana philosophy, particularly acceptance and contemplation of the imperfection, constant flux, and impermanence of all things. Such arts can exemplify a wabi-sabi aesthetic. Here is an incomplete list:
honkyoku (traditional shakuhachi music of wandering Zen monks)
ikebana (flower arrangement)
Japanese gardens, Zen gardens, and bonsai (tray gardens)
Japanese poetry, particularly haiku
Japanese pottery, notably Hagi ware
Japanese tea ceremony
Bonsai the Japanese art of miniature trees

Western use

Former Stuckist artist and remodernist filmmaker Jesse Richards employs it in nearly all of his work, along with mono no aware.
During the 1990s the concept was borrowed by computer software developers and employed in Agile programming and Wiki to describe acceptance of the state of ongoing imperfection that is the product of these methods.
On 16 March 2009, Marcel Theroux presented In Search of Wabi-sabi on BBC Four as part of the channel’s “Hidden Japan” season of programming. Marcel travelled throughout Japan trying to understand the aesthetic tastes of Japan and its people.
This year at Milan’s Furniture Fair, designers are rebelling against the notion of pristine objects. Altough it looks like a new notion, it has the same kind of approach as the ancient philosophy of Japane; wabi- sabi. That sensibility used to be absent in the west–Modernism being the exact antithesis of wabi sabi–but today, it’s refuge for young designs. Which makes a certain sense, if you’re a cutting-edge furniture designer: There are only a few ways to make a a product look perfect, but a million different routes to making it look messed up. With that in mind, here’s some of the pieces from Milan:
Designed by Tjep for Droog, a clearinghouse for conceptual design, the designs for these vases were borrowed from famous designers–the bubbly form is from a work by Marcel Wanders; the pink vase is by Hella Jongerius, for Ikea. But Tjep lined them with rubber, so that they don’t don’t break when dropped. Instead, they accrue cracks like a hard-boiled egg:

This table by Peter Marigold, looks haphazard, and in a way it is: The leather comes from remnant scraps, salvaged from the Fendi factory floor. But the willynilly shapes in the table come from the precise shape of a bisected square:

For more: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/cliff-kuang/design-innovation/ancient-japanese-aesthetic-revived-milan

matt greene, ‘pictures of women’, poster

matt greene – pictures of women
deitch projects, new york
april 11 – may 02, 2009

American artist Matt Greene presents his second solo show at deitch projects exploring representational art
in contemporary culture. ‘pictures of women’ features a collection of large-scale works that deal with
‘sexual fetish, the female figure and forms of nature’. the works depict multi-layered images superimposed
one on top of another. drawing and photography are both used atop textured surfaces that have been coated
with thick layers of varnish. green creates the artworks from photographic thumbnails which are glued onto
the canvas. he adds lines of perspective and builds up the work in layers. as he progresses, green cuts the
glued images peeling them off the reveal previous incarnations of the work.

‘zone of ambiguity’ by matt greene, 2009 (collage, acrylic and oil on canvas)

For more : http://www.deitch.com

untitled work from the graphic objects series by mira schendel, 1972

The museum of modern art in new york is currently showing an ‘tangled alphabets’ which
juxtaposes the work of argentinian artist león ferrari and the late swiss/brazilian artist
mira schendel. Their works address language as a major visual subject matter: the visual
body of language, the embodiment of voices as words and gestures, and language as
a metaphor of the worldly aspect of human existence through the eloquence of naming
and writing.

untitled work from the graphic objects series by mira schendel, 1972

(left) ‘P4CR’ by león ferrari 1979 (right) ‘letter to a general’ by león ferrari 1963

The new york times has published a review of the show: here

The work of pablo picasso, vincent van gogh, charles eames, cindy sherman and andy warhol may be
commonplace in a gallery, but definitely not on the subway, until now. from february 10 to march 15,
brooklyn’s atlantic avenue/pacific street subway station, is being filled with reproductions of over
50 works of art thanks to the MoMA. for 24 hours a day seven days a week, images of work from the
MoMA collection will be on display inside the subway station. the special promotion hopes to raise
awareness of the new york museum’s collection of artwork and design.

photogprahy by jeff baxter

For more: http://atlanticpacific.moma.org