Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection

Apr 2, 2016–Apr 2, 2017

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Portraits Without People

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Is likeness essential to portraiture? These works, spanning the past one hundred years, raise this question as they present alternate means for capturing an individual’s personality, values, and experiences. At the twentieth century’s outset, the rise of abstraction and advances in photography spurred many artists to devise new, non-figurative approaches to portraiture. In their paintings, American modernists such as Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Florine Stettheimer frequently adopted symbols—including abstract geometries, typographical characters, and natural forms—as surrogates for themselves and their closest companions.

Artists have continued to experiment with symbolic portraiture in the decades since World War II, whether hinting at private meanings by depicting intimate spaces and personal possessions or referencing themselves through the tools of their craft. When the face or the body does appear in the works featured here, it is shown at a remove, as a representation within a representation. Forgoing physical likeness in favor of allusion and enigma, all of these works expand the possibilities of what a portrait can be, while also acknowledging that the quest to depict others—and even ourselves—is elusive.

Below is a selection of works from Portraits Without People.

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SUN, 1931

July 10, 2015
Nick Mauss on Sun by Florine Stettheimer

In 99 Objects

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July 10, 2015
Nick Mauss on Sun by Florine Stettheimer

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Florine Stettheimer often depicted herself, her mother and sisters, and the artists who frequented the vibrant gatherings in her family’s Manhattan apartment. Alongside likenesses of her sitters, she typically included emblems of the individual’s identity—clues to character that could only be deciphered by this privileged audience. At the center of Sun is a symbol deeply personal to the artist: a towering bouquet. Stettheimer picked a bouquet of seasonal flowers each year on her birthday, recording the event in her journal; this one celebrates her sixtieth birthday and, with Florine written on the ribbon that snakes around it like a vine, suggests a stand-in for the artist herself. A woman, perhaps Stettheimer, lounges under an arbor on the distant sun-drenched rooftop.

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On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

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