Explore the power of portraits in group exhibition 'About Face' at the UBS Art Gallery
The UBS Art Collection has brought together works by renowned artists in a group exhibition titled 'About Face: Portraits from the UBS Art Collection'. The exhibition explores the boundless possibilities of portraiture to provide insight into human nature and collective experiences.
The exhibition invites guests to view diverse representations of the human face across painting, photography, print and sculpture. From family members and historical figures to anonymous sitters and self-portraits, these works reveal how identities are shaped by the artist’s personal narratives, societal struggles and triumphs, cultural influences or art historical traditions.
The artists in the exhibition use portraiture to tell a story and reflect shared encounters. In 'Dresdner Frauen - Die Wendin', 1990, from 'The Women of Dresden' series, Georg Baselitz pays homage to the 'Rubble Women' who worked to reconstruct the artist’s hometown of Dresden after the Second World War. The wooden sculpture recalls a portrait bust and has been crudely shaped to show a strong woman impacted by war.
Portraits celebrate both the individual and collective experience, as seen in the unique self-portraits by Amoako Boafo, Francesco Clemente, Zanele Muholi, and Raqib Shaw and the monumental photographs by Thomas Ruff. In 'Tobacco Versus Red Chief', 1981-82, Jean-Michel Basquiat alludes to his deep-rooted concerns about society and imposes his own identity in the process of artistic creation.
Artists depict their subjects — sometimes anonymous and other times friends and family — in close ups that can be intimate examinations of the sitter or situation, such as in the portraits by Alex Katz, Jenny Scobel and Beat Streuli, or in more neutral, distanced observations, evident in the photographs by Thomas Ruff. Still others, such as Cindy Sherman, draw inspiration from 16th century Renaissance artists.
Alongside works by Georg Baselitz, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Zanele Muholi, Jenny Scobel and Raqib Shaw, the exhibition also features portraits by acclaimed artists Franz Gertsch, Gerhard Richter and Amy Sherald.
“We are pleased to share this exceptional range of portraits from the UBS Art Collection,” said Mary Rozell, Global Head of the UBS Art Collection. “This exhibition reveals the ways portraiture can be reinvented to encourage different ways of thinking about the world and ourselves.”
The UBS Art Collection is one of the world’s most important corporate collections of contemporary art, comprising more than 40,000 works. The UBS Art Gallery, located at 1285 Avenue of the Americas, offers the public free access to these extraordinary works in its dynamic rotating exhibitions.
