Personae – Pictures of Personalities

Personae consists of more than 60 works linked to portraiture, all from Pro Artibus Foundation’s collection. They range across a century of pencil drawings and video portraits telling a multifaceted tale about the tradition and current state of the portrait.

The Latin word persona originally referred to a mask worn by an actor. Even before the Ancient Romans, the Greeks wore masks in theatre performances, letting the audience know that the wearer on stage was a comic or tragic figure. The mask told them how the character and their behaviour were to be interpreted.

Today, personality is defined as a complex whole made up of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. It is seen as being more or less permanent, but can also change.

Both historical and contemporary artists have pondered or are still pondering the classic question of how to portray a person in their entirety? How are they to capture the landscape of the mind and soul, and not restrict themselves solely to depicting facial features? Artists often portray themselves, their loved ones, or make commissioned works on personal themes. Self-portraits, portraits and personal themes vary a lot in style and manner of presentation. Official portraits are among the most formal works, while portraits of loved ones can be very intimate. On the other hand, an unexpected, seemingly personal feature can have a major effect in a portrait or self-portrait of a famous person.

Artists make self-portraits for several reasons. The subject is close to hand and personal, besides which artistic work involves a personal quality, which also makes the question of selfhood and its various forms a tempting subject for depiction. A self-portrait is also a depiction of “being an artist”, as either an identity or a role. What should an artist look like?

Official portraiture is considered the most traditional genre in portrait making and regrettably frequently the least interesting one. For many people, such portraits are no more than a forced adherence to tradition, and not a living art at all. But it can still be said that there is life in tradition, too, and a portrait is still both proof that a person lived and a depiction of them. This is the basis for the attraction exerted by old portraits: it is as if the person there were alive, even though they are dead and gone. A portrait muddles our concept of time, because the past comes concretely into the present moment and situation.

Portraits can show the person themselves, or some object or place associated with them. A group portrait can reflect the dynamics of its members or present them to the outside world. Sometimes, a portrait is propagandistic, while at other times it is like saying: They were here. In front of you is a personality, but what is the personality like?

Juha-Heikki Tihinen, PhD