The Psyche of the Portrait sees New York-based visual artist Liliane Tomasko respond to examples of portraiture from Sheffield’s Visual Art collection with her own abstract vocabulary. Shedding light on the ever-changing human psyche, the exhibition presents new work by Tomasko directly responding to portraits by Frank Auerbach, Pierre Bonnard, Kees Van Dongen, and Eduardo Paolozzi.
An abiding interest in the subconscious runs as a thread through the work of Liliane Tomasko – whether interrogating the uncanny of the seeming emptiness of the corner of a room, to the rumpled sheets of a slept-in bed, her dynamic, sweeping brushstrokes converge to erase, transcend, interrogate, or reframe any recognisable origins. For The Psyche of the Portrait, Tomasko takes a bold new direction, responding to four specific portraits she has chosen that are in, or on loan to, Sheffield’s collection.
What emerges in Tomasko’s new paintings, created especially for the exhibition, deftly draws parallels between the creation of those original works and the historical development of psychological study in the 20th century. Together, they question the psychological power dynamics of artist and sitter, query the role of the subconscious in the creative act, and reimagine parables in the context of our 21st-century anxieties.
Suggested donation £5 – please donate if you're able and help keep your museums open and available for everyone to enjoy.