Frame-filled white walls bring children still holding their mother’s hands, as well as university-age young adults. This is where the stares of hundreds of eyes are not daunting but welcomed. This room is where cultural appreciation meets storytelling.
Even still, there is mystery behind each face on the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art’s walls. The Much Ado About Portraits exhibition — which is the first Harn exhibit to use pieces from other Harn main collecting areas — examines the creation, meaning and importance of portraits, according to a Harn Museum of Art news release.
“It will be fascinating for visitors to explore those meanings and learn about the similarities and differences of portraits from different times and places,” said Jason Steuber, confrin curator of Asian art and lead curator of the exhibit, in the news release.
More than 100 portraits expressed through multiple mediums chronicle works from before the Common Era to the present day, according to the release.
On each wall, a face stares at the onlooker, telling a story of sorts.
One section of the exhibit holds photographs of Billie Holiday, Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole singing jazz era tunes, frozen in time in black and white.
“The musician’s face is suffused with effort and emotion and beauty: the music is there,” William Gottlieb, the photographer, wrote on a small white card that was placed next to the portraits.
Next to the majority of the portraits in the exhibit, cards told anecdotes and facts about the pieces and their artists.
Looking closely, you can almost hear what he’s talking about in Fitzgerald’s closed eyes and Sinatra’s sly smile.
“(The exhibit) illustrates the variety the portrait can take,” said Kelsey Velez, a Harn Museum intern and recent UF graduate. “It allows us to take a closer look at images we take for granted.”
On an LCD television screen at the edge of the exhibit, the faces of high school students, who were encouraged by the Harn to send in their portraits, flashed on the screen to show the simple beauty of the face of a regular person.
For $3, any visitor can sit in the small photo booth adjacent to the TV and have their photos flash on screen as well.
“It’s fun for people to get their photo taken,” said Neila Darnby, who climbed out of the photo booth with her niece and nephew while their mother Jenn Garrett stood outside, smiling as her daughter’s face came on screen.
“I want the kids to feel comfortable around art,” Garrett said about bringing her two children to the exhibit.
Garrett is also an artist whose “Into the Smoke” sculpture can be found outside Fire Station 1 on South Main Street.
On Sept. 8, the faces, still and emotional, in the portraits at the exhibit will be sent back to their original spots in the museum or to the owner who loaned them to be looked upon at the exhibit.
In the meantime, however, hundreds of faces are waiting for visitors to come and learn their stories.
“(Portraits) are the best way of understanding the human existence,” Velez said.
Participants of the Much Ado About Portraits exhibition stop to examine the various faces splashed across the canvases at the Harn Museum. North Central Florida high school students also have the opportunity to be a part of the virtual exhbition by submitting a portrait to be displayed electronically.
