Portraits at La Biennale di Venezia
The 2024 Venice Art Biennale, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, took a refreshing turn in its main exhibition, by placing an emphasis on portraiture, in particular showcasing works by artists from the “Global South”. This shift is notable, as recent Biennales have often championed conceptual installations and immersive environments, pushing the boundaries beyond traditional mediums.
There are two things that emerge as particularly striking with this choice to forground portraiture in such a way. One is the speculation as to whether the focus on portraiture also speaks to a broader re-engagement with tradition and materiality in contemporary art, as conceptual experimentation may have turned into saturation over the last decade. Are artists embracing the physicality of the canvas and the intimacy of brushwork as a way to ground ideas in something concrete and enduring? Unlike many conceptual works that require extensive explanation, portraiture offers immediate resonance and accessibility, evoking empathy, curiosity, and introspection. They are also much easier to sell to prospective collectors.
The curation that underlines an increasing desire for representation of diverse global identities within the art world also marks a moment of artistic reconciliation and renewal. By embracing portraiture as a medium that bridges the personal and the universal, and by highlighting artists who navigate the complexities of cultural hybridity, it celebrates the enduring vitality of traditional art forms in contemporary practice while also underlining another unexpected element. In a continuation of contemporary artists from the “Global South” like El Anatsui, Yinka Shonibare, and Wangechi Mutu integrating traditional forms of visual expression into works that address identity within in a broader context, the artists in this presentation – through choosing to work with a form of visual media that has been so strongly associated with European art history - are demonstrating how non-European artists are both participants in and contributors to a global canon. Many works displayed draw on traditional (as connected with their cultural heritage) forms and motifs— spiritual symbolism, and abstraction—while grounding their works in the formal rigour and representational focus of European portraiture. The portraits on display reveal this synthesis with remarkable clarity.
In the past, there had been an established hierarchy of influence. An example of this is the pivotal role African ritual and ceremonial sculpture (perhaps the most prominent example of said influence) played in the early 20th century in shaping European avant-garde movements as artists such as Amedo Modigliani or Constantin Brancusi where fascinated by their bold abstraction, and spiritual resonance. The strong emphasis on form and symbolism over literal representation aligned with modernist interest in abstraction and emotional expression and introduced a new vocabulary of form to the Western canon. These influences were instrumental in the development of modernist aesthetics, as seen in Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, which incorporated the angularity and raw vitality of African masks. However, this "Primitivism" was often marked by a lack of understanding of the cultural contexts from which these objects originated and not recognizing their sophistication. It nevertheless was incorporated into European Modernism. The artworks on display within this part of the biennale’s main exhibition stand out not just through their technical and aesthetic accomplishment but also by virtue of their cultural significance as they address this hierarchy of influence.