Depicting people in Rome : contemporary examples of portraiture in the work of international artists

Abstract

This article looks at how three international artists portray people in Rome today. In these portraits we get nuanced glimpses into the lives of the people who inhabit the city – from tourists in the city centre to local Romans and immigrants in the suburbs, from inmates and their partners at the Rebibbia prison to a Spanish Catholic exorcist. Analysing how the artists employ a wide range of media and investigative methodologies to negotiate the distance between groups of people as well as between the portrayer and the portrayed, I seek to clarify who these portrayed people are, how the artists interact with them, and what these examples of contemporary portraiture tell us about the way international artists look at Rome. I argue that the portraits are characterised by an urge to explore social structures and relationships; that they go beyond the limits of traditional portraiture and challenge our perception of what a portrait is or does; and that they show us that Rome is not simply an urban space dominated by its ancient pasts, but a contemporary globalised city defined by the people who inhabit it at any given moment in history.