The portrait, in the history of art, holds a place as important as still life, landscape, and animal art (prehistoric nonetheless)!
For a long time, it was reserved for gods, kings, and the dead. Let us recall the Fayum portraits, a way of remaining eternal...
And while one of the first portraits was that of our King John II the Good around 1350, and not from the front but from the side, the many portraits that followed in the 15th and Renaissance centuries were primarily associated with landscapes.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, they were reserved for those in power and a certain elite, and even if Le Nain and Ribera offered us a more popular take, it was exceptional!
What about now, when we can "take our own portraits" and even exhibit ourselves online?
What do artists want to express through painting, drawing, photography, video, and sculpture in our time? Perhaps we can find beneath our masks what lies deep within ourselves?
And if we take the portrait of the Mona Lisa, the most famous of all, as an example, it continues to pose essential and ongoing questions. Who is she really?
What does Leonardo da Vinci mean through her and her enigmatic smile?
Perhaps we can search for the soul of the model?
More recently, Picasso wrote: "Should we paint what is on a face, or what is hidden behind a face?"
It's up to you to find the answer in this new Biennale!
Chantal Mennesson
Exhibition Curator
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