LESSON RESOURCE AbouT–FACE
This resource extends on a mark making exercise introduced in TC#1 which involved drawing the back of someone's head. It seemed like a novel starting point for a portrait project. I then discovered Rückenfigur - a compositional device with a long art history which involves depicting someone from behind. So, Part 1 of this resource brings together further insights and some practical activities that reach out across our Threshold Concepts, and in particular TC#1 Artists make marks, drawing our attention, TC#4 Artists use and abuse traditions and TC#5 Artists play - with ideas, materials and failure. Part 2 (to follow) considers another strategy for (playfully challenging) conventional portraiture drawing - the popular and divisive grid method.
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PART 1 Rückenfigur
The possession of a back — a side that can neither see nor be seen by the person to whom it belongs — literally pursues us all our lives. Trisha Urmi Banerjee
A Rückenfigur (German for "back-figure") is a compositional device where a person is depicted from behind, facing away from the viewer. Rather than looking at the audience, the character looks at the same scene or landscape that the viewer is looking at.
To begin, here are some examples below, focused on the back of heads rather than framing whole bodies within a scene.
To begin, here are some examples below, focused on the back of heads rather than framing whole bodies within a scene.
Clockwise from top left: Cornrow braids, 1505, by Leonardo da Vinci; Woman seen from the back, 1862, by Onésipe Aguado de las Marismas; Study showing the back of a boy, ca. 1884 and Rest, 1905, by Wilhelm Hammershøi
By focusing on the back of a head, we are deprived of the familiar features of a portrait (such as eyes, nose, mouth). This could, potentially, invite increased attention and closer looking. Drawing hair is also difficult and both the unfamiliarity and overwhelming detail can create a "crisis of representation" where reliance on familiarity and literal drawing become challenged. This can force (or positively invite, depending on your mindset) increased engagement with, and attention to, experimental mark-making. The following activities explore this further.
ACTIVITY
In contrast to these controlled observations, now try the following approaches to the same subject matter - the back of someone's head:
The drawings below, by Van Gogh, are of farm workers in the field. He has a very distinctive style of confident mark making which might be described as angular and animated. Van Gogh is often regarded as a pioneer of a more expressive approach, where lines and marks attempt to emotively reach beyond straightforward representations.
ACTIVITY
- Produce a series of controlled observational drawings of the backs of your classmates' heads. Take it in turn to model. Experiment with a range of materials, scales and timings. Focus predominantly on 'accurate' representation - 'realistic' attempts to record what you see, perhaps comparable to the images above. These might also be described as 'traditional' drawings. (The terms 'accurate', 'realistic' and 'traditional' are debatable here: 2 dimensional drawings, however realistic, are very different from 3 dimensional, full colour, ever-shifting realities).
In contrast to these controlled observations, now try the following approaches to the same subject matter - the back of someone's head:
- Produce a drawing without looking down at the paper. Keep your observation fixed firmly on the (back of the) subject only. Pay attention to line and flow, textures and marks, shapes and forms.
- Produce a series of timed studies (the length of a song can be a good measure) where you are selective and experimental with marks. Consider what is the least you can do to suggest form, texture and/or tone, and to capture the essence of the subject.
- Produce a series of observational drawings/experiments using a variety of materials. For example, you might try pencils, stick and ink, paint, collage, marker pens or plasticine. Experiment with how these might be combined and/or presented.
The drawings below, by Van Gogh, are of farm workers in the field. He has a very distinctive style of confident mark making which might be described as angular and animated. Van Gogh is often regarded as a pioneer of a more expressive approach, where lines and marks attempt to emotively reach beyond straightforward representations.
Whilst the following examples are not of the backs of heads or bodies, Frank Aurbach and Maggi Hambling also produce marks in ways that appear to contain more energy, expression and individuaity than more objective recordings.
Gerda Boehm, 1961, by Frank Auerbach
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Portrait of Michael Gambon, 2010, by Maggi Hambling
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The full Rückenfigur
To depict someone from behind, particularly set within a scene, opens up profound possibilities for both attentive learning and pictorial expression. Below are a few potential concepts to consider:
Shared Perspective
A rückenfigur perspective invites the viewer to look with the character rather than at them. We can step into their shoes and experience the environment through their eyes. This is a device that is commonly used in graphic novels, films and video games.
To depict someone from behind, particularly set within a scene, opens up profound possibilities for both attentive learning and pictorial expression. Below are a few potential concepts to consider:
Shared Perspective
A rückenfigur perspective invites the viewer to look with the character rather than at them. We can step into their shoes and experience the environment through their eyes. This is a device that is commonly used in graphic novels, films and video games.
From Howarts Legacy, video game
Orson Welles in director Carol Reed's 1949 film The Third Man
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Rear view artwork of Batman overlooking Gotham City
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Emotional Ambiguity and Existential Loneliness
By hiding the face, the artist conceals the subject's exact emotion. This, alongside many accompanying influences (body positioning, gestures, clothing, composition, styles and techniques colours and so on) can invite or encourage the artist and viewer to speculate on, or project their own, feelings, curiosity, or loneliness onto an isolated figure.
Christina's World, 1948, by American realist painter Andrew Wyeth, an iconic work of mid-20th-century American art.
Encountering the Sublime
While this view-of-back perspective has been used for centuries (earliest known examples can be found on ancient greek vases),German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich popularised it in the early 19th century. His famous Romanticist painting, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, is an iconic example of self-reflection and worldly wonder.
Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, by Caspar David Friedrich, 1818.
The Poetic and the Surreal
Surrealist artists such as René Magritte subverted the Rückenfigur to challenge the nature of identity, everyday reality, and human perception. Other artists, such as Wilhelm Hammershøi, used a rearview composition to suggest psychological isolation within a domestic home life. Whilst distinct in their approaches, both artists seem to evoke the uncanny with a strange visual poetry.
René Magritte, Not to be Reproduced, 1937
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René Magritte, The Schoolmaster, 1954
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Interior, 1898, VILHELM HAMMERSHØI
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Interior, 1899
Vilhelm Hammershøi
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ACTIVITY
Inspired by the examples above, and your own wider research into these themes, ideas and artists: plan and develop an artwork or series of works that explores the concept of Rückenfigur. Below are some further notes to help.
- Consider how you might use this exercise to also explore themes of mark making and your preferences for accurate or expressive approaches, or something else, which might be more illustrative, surreal or animated.
- Consider the (type of) model you might use, and what their clothes, positioning and gesturing might hint at. Also carefully consider your choice of location and how this might connect or contrast.
- Carefully experiment with composition - how you choose to arrange your elements, and how these decisions, be this relating to scale, (illusion of) depth, colour, light and shade, or something else, might lead the viewer's eye one way or another.
- Consider how wider meaning, context or concept might emerge. This might take into account environmental, social, ethical or political concerns, or something more directly personal to you.