“Face to Face” takes a look at portraits, something we’re very familiar with in life. It presents artworks from the Taipei Fine Arts Museum’s collection and uses them as examples of the many ways our faces can be expressed in art.

When we look at a portrait, the first thing we usually notice is “what the person looks like” – their appearance, their features, or their shape. However, the artist does not simply paint “a face.” They often include their observations of the subject’s personality and overall state. Using colors, lines, brushstrokes and backgrounds, artists express all kinds of things they imagine in their own minds about the face.

“Face to Face” explores the inner feelings that an artist sees in their subject’s face. In “A Self-Introduction on Canvas,” we will look at how artists observe themselves. And in “I Am Another You,” we will see how artists paint their subjects’ true emotions.