Artiface: Artists’ Portraits in Prints, the third exhibition co-ordinated by David Maskill with Art History Honours students, explored portraiture in prints throughout the history of the print.

Portraiture is one of the ‘hot topics’ in contemporary art practice, especially photography. Artists are questioning notions of identity and likeness in a medium with an inherent potential for manipulation and distortion. This is not a new phenomena and this exhibition aimed to explore the artist’s portrait in print from the beginnings of European printmaking in the Renaissance to the twentieth century.

The exhibition included a selection of work from the collections of Te Papa Tongarewa Musuem of New Zealand, the Auckland Art Gallery and a number of private collections, featuring works by Cezanne, Durer, Manet, van Dyck, Tuffery, and Picasso.

Importantly, this exhibition was an opportunity for Victoria University of Wellington Art History Honours students to gain practical curatorial and applied research skills in the development of an exhibition.

This exhibition was staged concurrently with PLAY: Portraiture + Performance in Recent Video Art from Australia + New Zealand.