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Originally Posted by Alexandra Tyng
Where were you looking at portraits without artists' names? I have noticed that problem, but mostly in hospitals, offices, universities, etc. They hire the artist and then once the job is done they forget there ever was an artist. But Philadelphia is so reserved about everything, it wouldn't surprise me even in a museum.
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Well, I was wandering around academic institutions and hotel lobbies, brooding about the invisibility of the many fine portrait painters I saw there. One of the differences between 'fine art' and 'work for hire' is that the artist gets to take the public credit (or the blame) for the resulting product. I suppose that in portraiture, there are two other strong competing claims for the visual rights to the product: the subject and the commissioning institution.
Furhtermore, if we were painting icons - devotional pieces which are themselves sacred and divine presences - artists would remain anonymous. Maybe we are painting icons.
Anyway, I suppose we could write it into our contracts that artists should be credited when a portrait is publicly displayed. I'm not sure how this would go over with clients, though; probably not very well.
The best thing to do is what you're doing with this show: reveal that portraits are painted by real artists.
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