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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2011 > February > 02 > Entry
Blanton exhibits Robert Wilson’s video portraits
A cross-genre artistic icon, internationally acclaimed Robert Wilson has explored the ethereal qualities of light and movement in myriad form: opera, theater and visual arts.
Until Feb. 16, the Blanton Museum of Art will display five portraits from Wilson’s intriguing and enigmatic video portrait series. Wilson was the honoree of the Blanton’s recent Gala Luminere fundraiser.
Shot in high definition and saturated with vivid color, the large-scale portraits of celebrities, artists, everyday people and animals show each subject in an arresting pose — until they move, that is.
Wilson’s slow-moving pictures — accompanied by subtle soundtracks — reveal each subject performing a sometimes surprising, sometimes subtle gesture.
Brad Pitt stands in pouring rain, a water pistol slyly in one hand. Princess Caroline of Monaco strikes a pose that is at once a reference to a painting by John Singer Sargent and a scene by Alfred Hitchcock.
Displayed on large-scale HD plasma flat-screen monitors, Wilson’s portraits — which will be displayed throughout the Blanton Museum’s second-floor galleries — showcase the Waco-born artist’s remarkable flair for the subtle and the sly.
A comment on our celebrity culture — and also on the very nature and history of portraits as an art form — Wilson’s teasingly coy videos playfully intrigue.
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