Winter 2019 MMoCA Newsletter

EXHIBITIONS
MIRROR IMAGE: PORTRAITS FROM
THE PERMANENT COLLECTION
Main galleries • Feb 23–May 19, 2019
Drawn entirely from MMoCA’s permanent collection, Mirror Image examines the evolution of the portrait from the
early twentieth century to the present. While often depicting physical likeness, portraiture also unveils aspects of
an individual’s identity and disposition. With the introduction of photography and the art historical movement of
abstraction, the genre of portraiture expanded from an elite mode of documentation to a more conceptual approach
of representation.
Alex Katz, one of the most revered portrait painters in the contemporary art world, painted his constant muse and
wife Ada over 250 times. While a traditional portrait aims to document the sitter and reveal their character, Katz
seeks to supplant this narrative by combining the realistic with the artificial in order to generate an archetype of the
human form. Katz’s paintings emphasize the surface through strategic use of smooth, broad swaths of paint and
large, flat areas of color that result in bold and powerful compositions that visually dominate a gallery. He further
abstracts the individual he is painting in situ by devoting only minimal attention to detail. In Ada on Green Couch
(1971), Katz renders Ada’s likeness with such few brushstrokes that her presence is palpable, but unknowable. Katz
also manipulates the perspective of the painting by positioning Ada at a sharp angle and closely cropping around
her face as she rests on the dark green couch. This view generates a faux intimacy with the viewer—while she is close,
there are not enough painted characteristics to conjure her into existence. Stripped of any detail, meaning or context,
the painted Ada is all exterior, a representation, a symbol of the person he references.
The format of the portrait continues to be a major theme in modern and contemporary art—whether a direct likeness
or a conceptual rendering of selfhood. Today, with the ubiquitous social media phenomenon of the selfie, the
portrait remains a testament to the fundamental human need for engagement, understanding, and the quest for
memorialization of self and other. Mirror Image contains over 100 portraits—over half of which have not been seen
in more than two decades or have never been on view at the museum. The exhibition features work by artists Gertrude
Abercrombie, Ivan Albright, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Warrington Colescott, David Hockney, Alex Katz, Käthe Kollwitz,
Henri Matisse, Jim Nutt, and Karl Wirsum.
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Generous support, to date, for Mirror Image has been provided by JoAnne Robbins and David Falk; the Theda
and Tamblin Clark Smith Family Foundation; Bell Laboratories; Chuck Bauer and Chuck Beckwith; a grant from
the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts; and
MMoCA Volunteers.