Portrait of a Citizen

This exhibition offers an opportunity to consider the central role that art plays in representing the ubiquitous, but fundamental, image of the citizen in society. Prior to the 20th century the portrait of the citizen tended to be closely linked to portraits of nobility, statesmen, soldiers or clergy. These were singular individuals who, through their high position in society played formative roles in shaping their world and the lives of the people who inhabited it.

In the late 19th century photography began to reshape the ways that we imagine ourselves as citizens of a city, a nation or the world at large. Coinciding with larger political and social movements toward democracy, the emergence of photography, both in its economy and immediacy of production, allowed artists to capture anonymous individuals engaged in everyday actions.

The portrait of the citizen not only tells the story of belonging and identity for the individual within a larger society but also gives representation to those who are alienated from that world. Whether through prejudice, economic disparity, inequality, indifference or dissent, many citizens find themselves alienated from society. The predominance of this subject in contemporary art acknowledges the fragility of our condition and the value we place on our citizenship.

Artists in the exhibition include Roy Arden, Julia Margaret Cameron, Rineke Dijkstra, Francesco Goya, Theophile Hamel, Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange, Thomas Lawrence, Helen Levitt, Attila Richard Lukacs, Liz Magor, Scott McFarland, Nadar, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, Ian Wallace, Jin-me Yoon and others.

Image: Thomas Struth, Kunsthistorisches Museum III Wien, 1989, VAG 2002.27.22