The 20th century saw important changes in
artin particular, a new approach to portraiture.
The long-upheld belief that the sitter's
image should be true to reality was first challenged
by late 19th century Post-Impressionists
Gauguin and Van Gogh. However, the crux of
the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and
Fundacin Caja Madrid's joint exhibition centers
around Pablo Picasso, considered the greatest
portraitist of the 20th century. Through experimentation
with visual idioms, the artist opposed
traditional imagery, creating unique abstract
images based on the artist's perception, rather
than realityfocusing on the identity of the
artist rather than the sitter. Opening with the
fin-de-sicle and early 20th century pioneers
and closing with the 1980s, the exhibition's
illustrious works, by Czanne, Matisse, Freud,
Dal, Modigliani, Warhol and Bacon, give a
fantastic overview of the radical changes in
art and portraiture over the century.