Review by Choice Review
As this catalogue of a traveling exhibition by the same name acknowledges, portraiture has not been among the more highly valued forms of visual representation among art theorists and historians, but it still has an indelible place in the history of art. Portraiture particularly took hold in the life of Robert Flynn Johnson, a longtime curator of graphic arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, who began to collect drawings and oil sketches in 1973 and now shares his collection with the public. Primarily works by European and American artists, ranging from the late eighth century to the present, these 150 portraits offer a fascinating range of style, technique, and emotional content. The drawings are presented in thematic categories, with one of the more unusual and interesting being portraits of subjects either asleep or deceased. Caricatures, which are primarily intended to elicit emotion, are also included, with perhaps the most timely image being a scathing 1988 sketch of businessman Donald Trump. Images are accompanied by brief and accessible catalogue entries; two brief essays on portraiture and the Johnson collection introduce and synthesize the varied content. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, general readers. --Julia K. Dabbs, University of Minnesota--Morris
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
