DEFINING FACES

20th-Century Portrait Drawings

From formal commissions to intimate sketches of friends and lovers, Defining Faces focuses on portraiture in a century that witnessed radical changes in artistic style.

The exhibition – the second in a prestigious collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery, London – examines the function of, and the variety of approaches to the genre. Focusing on celebrated personalities from the 20th century, it features emotionally charged and elegant likenesses of sitters including Henry Moore, Ted Hughes and Stephen Hawking, by artists such as Sylvia Plath, Percy Wyndham-Lewis, and Oskar Kokoschka.

Drawings in the traditional and modern media are complemented by original related letters and books from the University’s Cadbury Research Library, with many items never before on public display.

The exhibition, co-curated with postgraduate students from the History of Art department, University of Birmingham celebrates sensitivity and brilliance in the depiction of subjects who themselves helped define an epoch.

To complement Defining Face, the Understanding British Portraits network will be holding a one-day seminar, ‘Contemporary responses to Portrait Collections’, in Birmingham on Tuesday 16 July. For more information, or to book a place, click here: http://www.britishportraits.org.uk/events/contemporary-responses-to-portrait-collections/

Now you can follow Defining Faces on Twitter (@DefiningFaces) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/DefiningFaces).

To hear some of the postgraduate student involved in curating the exhibition talk about their experiences, click here.

Above Image: Tom Phillips, Richard Edward Morphet, 1972/3. Pastel. © DACS/Tom Phillips

7 June - 26 August 2013

Lady Barber Gallery

RELATED EVENTS

FILM NIGHT

Thursday 4 July, 6.30-9.30pm

Dora Carrington: A Platonic Affair

 

ADULT WORKSHOPS

Saturdays, 11am-4pm

1, 8, 15, 22 & 29 June

The Power of Portraiture

 

GALLERY TALKS

Tuesdays, 1.15pm

18 June

Defining Faces (introduction to the exhibition)

Louise Hatton, Jas Lally and Shelley Longford, MA Students

16 July

What Makes a Portrait?: Defining the categories

Nikolay Bogantsev, MA Student

30 July

Shades of Grey: Ink, charcoal and pastel

Shenjia Xu and Stephen Lloyd, MA Students

6 August

Scandal! Famous faces and their secret lives

Jas Lally and Katherine Wilson, MA Students

 

LUNCHTIME LECTURES

Wednesdays, 1.10pm

12 June

Defining Faces: Works from the Cadbury Research Library

Martin Killeen, rare books librarian, Cadbury Research Library

19 June 

Defining Faces: The University’s collection of portrait drawings

Clare Mullett, Deputy University Curator

3 July

The life and works of Dora Carrington and Vita Sackville

Deborah Longworth, Professor of English Literature

10 July 

The life and works of Ezra Pound

Steve Ellis, Professor of English Literature