Teaching Wall / Beyond Face Value: Meditations on Portraiture

May 7–August 17, 2025

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Oskar Kokoschka: Self Portrait, 1914; lithograph; 18-1/8 x 12-1/2 in.; University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Bequest of Helen A. Salz
Joseph Grigely: Alyson S. New York, 1996; Black and white silver print; 4-3/4 x 3 in. (by sight); University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Gift of The DiSaronno Originale Photography Collection
Frederick Hammersley: Knee portrait, 1; Gelatin silver print; Image: 4-1/2 x 7 in.; University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Gift of Frederick Hammersley Foundation

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Teaching Wall / Beyond Face Value: Meditations on Portraiture

Campus Collaborations

May 7–August 17, 2025

BAMPFA Student Committee | Summer 2025

Is it possible for a portrait to capture the “true essence” of its sitter? Traditional portraits in European art practice are carefully composed, often depicting a single figure with the face as the focus. However, this emphasis on physical likeness does not always succeed in representing a subject’s individuality, as personality, emotions, and identity are multidimensional and dynamic. Additionally, these portraits—from paintings of aristocrats to colonial ethnographic photography—assert hierarchical relationships of power and limited constructions of identity.

BAMPFA Student Committee | Summer 2025

For this exhibition, the BAMPFA Student Committee selected works from the museum’s permanent collection that challenge portraiture’s stylistic conventions and cultural associations by exploring alternative ways of expressing an individual’s interiority and presence. Through a selection of artworks in various mediums and styles, and from various time periods and cultures, this exhibition explores what it might mean when a portrait looks beyond exteriority and appearances. Whether illuminating the complex relationship between artist and subject, attending to the objects entwined with daily life, or recognizing a sitter’s agency in the production of a portrait, the works on view showcase the spectrum of possibilities that can represent one’s life and encourage a more expansive definition of portraiture.

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The BAMPFA Student Committee is a student-run and student-operated organization that works closely with museum staff to connect UC Berkeley students with the museum and the larger Bay Area art scene.