Layered and doubled: Till Richter Museum - Schloss Buggenhagen

The portrait is perhaps the most essential of the five classical academic genres of art / painting for it is closest to us as humans. It testifies of our identity like a mirror image but is often done by someone else to be seen by someone else than ourselves. Done well it conveys to the spectator not only the essence of the portrayed but possibly also something about the spectator thus entering in a triangular relationship.

This double (or even triple) character of portraiture is evident in the two rooms consecrated to the subject and drawing on 24 works from the permanent collection with media ranging from drawing over oil painting and diverse printing techniques to collages, photography, sculpture and even a famous Stevengraph jacquard weaving image from Neyret Freres.

Of course, as soon as something is layered it may also be doubled and vice-versa but not necessarily so. Images can be doubled or layered as much as contents or processes. This represents the different levels of perception and representation like the echoes of a personality.

The exhibit starts with a personal entry since the portrait is per definition the most personal genre of art; it defines who we are and where we come from. The exhibit ends with the question who we want to be and where we want to go.

Artists

Miguel Aragón, Saïd Baalbaki, Katerina Belkina, Erik Brodmann, Arturo Cuenca, Angel Delgado, Brigitte Denecke, Rudolph Hausner, Stefania Iemmi, Aron Johnston, Young-Min Kang, Max Kögler, Fernando Lafuente, Gregorio Iglesias Mayo, Gala Oró, Regine und Wolfhard Richter, Francisco Souto, Nicola Swietkowiak