You Look Familiar

You Look Familiar explores the power of portraiture to challenge stereotypes through the portraits from the British Council Collection. Portraiture is a tool that represents cultural tendencies, social relations, identity politics and political agency because a portrait is never just a depiction of a person –it signifies many qualities of the sitter, as well as the culture surrounding him/her.

Portraiture is a relation through another figure. It reflects the relationship and power dynamics between the artist and the sitter. Traditionally an elite practice, portraiture was a statement about class: not everyone was portrayed. Today, portraiture became an important tool for diversity: for making the invisible visible, for making a stranger familiar, and against class fixation. The question of who was eligible to be portrayed changed over time, the power relationship between the artist and sitter shifted from a patronage of the sitter towards the patronage of the artist, or an equal exchange relationship between the two. Self-portraiture also became a prominent medium of expression, mostly reflecting diverse selves.

The idea of representation is constantly devised with portraiture: stereotypes, gendered depictions, race and class politics and histories are challenged. The works in this exhibition reflect on this idea of representation. They challenge various conventional assumptions of portraiture. They question what kinds of people are portrayed, how much information a portrait can reveal about its subject, and whether portraiture is a reliable source reflecting the truth.

In the exhibition, Frank Auerbach portrays a paid model and plays with the traditional idea of only certain people can be portrayed. Jake and Dinos Chapman ridicule the contemporary art world with re-introducing the idea of a commissioned portrait by placing a studio in a commercial art fair to portray people who pay. Lucian Freud’s life size portrait of his wife Kitty reflects his ambition to reveal deep understanding of his sitter’s personality. Craigie Aitchison presents a portrait that challenges the idea of portraiture as an elite practice. Michael Fullerton investigates different types of representation and how representation might be related to power in portraiture. Gary Hume’s simple and ambiguous portrait of the artist Cerith Wyn Evans is a contemporary take on the portrayal of public figures.

John Davies focuses on the materiality of portraiture. Lubaina Himid fights for the importance of diverse political agency through portraiture. Richard Hamilton portraits class mobility through intervening with a photograph. Madame Yevonde ridicules high society roles by blurring the lines between reality and fiction through portraiture as well still life photography. Tracey Emin’s self-portrait raises questions about self-representation. Sarah Lucas challenges gender representations through a series of self-portraits. Morag Keil blurs the line between the physical and digital with a self-portrait with a mobile phone. Kenny Macleod expresses different identities through video by playing with the viewer’s expectations of listening a coherent story. Diversity of the self comes into play in Chris Ofili’s painting. Mark Wallinger witfully reflects on national identity and fixation with class through a self-portrait. Last but not least, David Shrigley makes a daring attempt to reverse whose portrait can appear in public space and in what form.

The works in the exhibition cover a large time span, representing 80 years of British portrait tradition including contemporary works. You Look Familiar is simply an invitation to become familiar with new faces.

Ulya Soley works as a collection manager at the Pera Museum and co-curator and editor of the museum's various exhibition and publishing projects. After studying Art History and Psychology at McGill University, she went on to earn a master's degree in 'Culture, Criticism and Curatorship' from Central Saint Martins.

She co-curated with Fatma Çolakoğlu the "Katherine Behar: Data's Entry" exhibition held at the Pera Museum and "Bring Your Own Beamer" video exhibition project and curated the exhibition Stereo-Reality as part of Proto5533’s emerging curators programme. Soley, a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), has published articles in print and online in publications such as PINE, UQ, The Believer Logger, Istanbul Art News and Sanatatak, as well as an online publication project entitled "Stimuli".

Frank Auerbach
Head of JYM III, 1980
Oil on board, 61 x 71.1 cm
© Frank Auerbach, courtesy Marlborough Fine Art

Lucian Freud
Girl with Roses, 1947/48
Oil on canvas, 106 X 75.6 cm
© Lucian Freud Archive, 2014. All Rights Reserved. Bridgeman Art Library

Craigie Aitchison
Portrait of Chris Ogidih, 1998
oil on canvas, 50.8 cm x 40.6 cm
© Courtesy of the Artist / Bridgeman Art Library

Michael Fullerton
Ultramarine, 2014
Screenprint on somerset newsprint, 66 x 100 cm
© The Artist

Michael Fullerton
Kim Dotcom Under House Arrest, Dotcom Mansion, Auckland 2013 (Second Version), 2014
Oil on linen, 200 x 105 cm
© The Artist and Carl Freedman Gallery, London

Jake and Dinos Chapman
Painting for Pleasure and Profit: a Piece of Site-specific Performance-based Body Art in Oil, Canvas and Wood (Dimensions Variable), 2006
Oil on canvas, 30.5 x 25.3 cm
© Jake and Dinos Chapman. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2015.

Gary Hume
Cerith, 1998
Screenprint, 108.6 x 83.9 cm
© The Artist

John Davies
Head of P D, 1976/80
Resin, 25.5 cm high
© John Davies, courtesy Marlborough Fine Art

Lubaina Himid
1792, 2015
Acrylic on canvas, 45.3 x 64 cm
© The Artist and Hollybush Gardens

Lubaina Himid
2015, 2015
Acrylic on canvas, 45.3 x 64 cm
© The Artist and Hollybush Gardens

Richard Hamilton
Testament, 1993
Oil on cibachrome on canvas, 82 x 60 cm
© R.Hamilton. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2015.

Madame Yevonde
Mrs. Anthony Eden as the Muse of History, 1935
Archival Pigment Transfer Print, 50.7 x 40.6 cm
© The Yevonde Portrait Archive

Madame Yevonde
Still Life with Bust of Venus, 1938
Permanent Dye-transfer Print from Original Negative, 50.7 x 40.6 cm
© The Yevonde Portrait Archive

Madame Yevonde
Crisis, 1939
Permanent Dye-transfer Print from Original Negative, 50.7 x 40.6 cm
© The Yevonde Portrait Archive

Sarah Lucas
Self Portrait With Skull 1996 (1999)
Iris print on watercolor paper, 80 x 60 cm
© The Artist, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London

Sarah Lucas
Got A Salmon On #3 1997 (1999)
Iris print on watercolor paper, 80 x 60 cm
© The Artist, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London

Tracey Emin
Outside Myself (Monument Valley), 1994
Photograph, 65 x 81 cm
© The Artist, All Rights Reserved, DACS 2015.

Morag Keil
Untitled (self-portrait with mobile phone), 2013
Oil on canvas, 50 x 70 cm
© The Artist

Kenny Macleod
Robbie Fraser, 1999
Betacam sp Video, 17 min.
© The Artist

Chris Ofili
Untitled, 1996
Mixed media on canvas, 9 x 7 cm
© The Artist

Mark Wallinger
Self Portrait As Emily Davison, 1993
Photograph on aluminium, 137 x 89 cm
© The Artist

David Shrigley
Your Portrait Here, 1998
C-print (diptych), 15.2 cm x 20.3 cm
© The Artist

Curator: Ulya Soley

Project Manager: Su Başbuğu, British Council

Project Advisors: Esra A. Aysun, British Council, Emma Dexter, British Council, E. Osman Erden, Mimar Sinan Fine Art University

Communications: Merve Aydoğan, Cenk Cengiz, Özlem Ergun, Meltem Günyüzlü Ateş, British Council

British Council Collection: Nicola Heald

Voice over: Ulya Soley (TUR), Catherine Sinclair-Jones (ENG)

Audio description: Turkish Audio Description Foundation

Web Design and development: Pompaa