ŏn.us.portraits: Richard Avedon Exhibit

Over the past weekend I was able to make it to the Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power exhibit @ the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC before it ended Sunday.

I must admit I had put it off for some time, other “more important” things always popped up. I am quite delighted nothing “came up” the weekend of it’s closure. The exhibit is a very powerful collection of Avedon’s work over the past 6 decades.

“This exhibition traces one artist’s fascination with the animating forces of American democracy. Seen together, the photographs comprise a kind of historical group portrait, showing key figures from a half-century of political life. They provoke questions about the complex motivations of portraitists and their subjects, who work—sometimes at cross-purposes—to depict or project an image that conveys personal history, character, ambitions, and ideals. Finally, they reveal an extraordinary career-long investigation into the complex nature of power. Surrounded by the faces of the powerful, leaders and ordinary citizens alike, the audience is itself empowered by the dialogue that results between those who use power to exercise control and those who seek it to affect change.” – www.corcoran.org/avedon/about_more.htm

Here are some examples:

– Marian Anderson

– Malcolm X