Portraiture

‘Namatjira’s political leaders all look frozen, dull behind the eyes, whiter than white, and as if battling an internal war with their fakery and greed’

A series of extraordinary self-portraits taken in rural France over three decades prompt questions around gender, identity and biography

‘I have learned from John that you don’t need to shout in order to make an impact’

A tribute to the late South African photographer, creator of idiosyncratic portrayals of everyday life under the yoke of apartheid

A surprising show of silhouettes at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. sheds light on obscure chapters of US history 

A mix of unashamed nudes and demure portraits, Zhao Gang's paintings take in 21st-century China with feigned crudeness and humour 

Toyin Ojih Odutola’s portraits of a fictional aristocratic Nigerian family push toward an expanded definition of the ‘black experience’

Madeleine Thien takes a look at a celebrated painter who merged Western composition with Chinese brush-and-ink style

Will Elliott of Colnaghi reveals the stormy history of an exquisite French portrait going on view this week at Frieze Masters

Race, sexuality and portraiture

On the occasion of a major touring retrospective, Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith examines the relationship between image and painting in the work of Marlene Dumas

Illustration and art history collide in Sanya Kantarovsky’s paintings

Painting as sculpture as performance

Sylvia Sleigh’s extraordinary ‘history pictures’

At a time of revolution in digital technologies, when making extraordinary images has never been technically easier, painting persists. Jennifer Higgie asked eight artists to share their thoughts on the whys and wherefores of figurative painting

The paintings, drawings and animations of Tala Madani

What does our interest in the face tell us about contemporary methods of communication?

The fictitious portraits of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

From Roni Horn to Marina Abramović, Christina Zück examines the ‘enraptured faces’ of portrait photography today

Since 1995, Li Yongbin has been creating videos of faces in the Beijing apartment he has lived in for over 30 years