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“Art is an outlet toward regions which are not ruled by time and space”
— Marcel Duchamp

Avant-Guardian Musings is a curated space of ideas and information, resources, reviews and readings for undergraduate and graduate students studying modern and contemporary art history and visual art theory, film and photography studies, and the expanding field of visual culture and screen studies. For students currently enrolled in my courses or the field school, the blog and associated social media links also serve as a place of reflection and an extension of the ideas and visual material raised in lecture and seminar discussion.

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Blog
From the Archives | How (And Why) To Take Excellent Lecture Notes
From the Archives | How (And Why) To Take Excellent Lecture Notes
about 10 months ago
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
about 2 years ago
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
about 2 years ago
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
about 2 years ago
Top 10 Modern and Contemporary Art Exhibitions Worth Visiting In 2023
Top 10 Modern and Contemporary Art Exhibitions Worth Visiting In 2023
about 2 years ago

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Delighted to find these iconic Tom Ford Whitney’s deep in my closet over the weekend ✨☀️🕶️Anyone else remember these sunglasses from back in the day? I want to say these are well over 15 years old and they were a very big splurge, but I loved
Delighted to find these iconic Tom Ford Whitney’s deep in my closet over the weekend ✨☀️🕶️Anyone else remember these sunglasses from back in the day? I want to say these are well over 15 years old and they were a very big splurge, but I loved rediscovering and wearing them today. Great design is timeless. Invest in things you love— your future self will thank you✨ . . . #tomford #sunglasses #tomfordwhitney #whatiwore #shamelessselfie
If Seoul was a colour, it would be neon and bright, and if it was a shape, it would be curved and post-structural.
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#artanddesign #odetoacity #urban #seoul #korea #design #contemporaryart #architecture
If Seoul was a colour, it would be neon and bright, and if it was a shape, it would be curved and post-structural. . . . #artanddesign #odetoacity #urban #seoul #korea #design #contemporaryart #architecture
Visited the stunning Leeum Museum of Art today and took in the spatial delights of Korean architecture married to modern art. What I love most is how the familiar European and American “masters” (i.e. Rodin, Giacometti, Rauschenberg, Hess
Visited the stunning Leeum Museum of Art today and took in the spatial delights of Korean architecture married to modern art. What I love most is how the familiar European and American “masters” (i.e. Rodin, Giacometti, Rauschenberg, Hesse, Flavin, Rothko, Andre, Lewitt, Stella, etc…) are curated both in dialogue with Korean modern artists such as Lee Ufan and Kim Chong-yung, but also in juxtaposition to the beautiful natural setting that is showcased through large windows throughout the complex. A must see gallery if you visit Seoul. . . . #seoul #korea #modernart #contemporaryart #koreanart #arthistory
Flaneur for the day in Seoul ✨🇰🇷 A global city of high contrast, beauty, and living history around every corner.
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#seoul #korea #flaneur #daytripping #streetart #contemporaryart #modernart #urbanart #arthistory #urban #globalcity
Flaneur for the day in Seoul ✨🇰🇷 A global city of high contrast, beauty, and living history around every corner. . . . #seoul #korea #flaneur #daytripping #streetart #contemporaryart #modernart #urbanart #arthistory #urban #globalcity
Hello Seoul! 🇰🇷🛬✨안녕하세요 서울 Lucky me, I am incredibly excited to have arrived in South Korea today and staying smack dab in the middle of the stylish Gangnam District at the COEX Conference Centre. It is my first time in this beautiful city and I ca
Hello Seoul! 🇰🇷🛬✨안녕하세요 서울 Lucky me, I am incredibly excited to have arrived in South Korea today and staying smack dab in the middle of the stylish Gangnam District at the COEX Conference Centre. It is my first time in this beautiful city and I cannot wait to begin exploring, especially the contemporary art and design scene. I am here to attend and give a paper at the #IPSA2025 International Political Science Association World Congress, the largest global gathering of researchers and academics working on all things political and international relations oriented. IPSA as an academic association was founded under the auspices of UNESCO in 1949 and is devoted to the advancement of political science in all parts of the world and promotes collaboration between scholars in both established and emerging democracies. The 2025 Conference theme is “Resisting Autocratization in Polarized Societies” and I was invited to present a paper on my ongoing work on Trumpism, the neo avante-garde, and visual culture on a panel examining the role of cultural actors during periods of democratic backsliding. I only had a few hours after I arrived to my hotel to check out COEX, but I had to see the world famous library housed inside the shopping complex. It was a very cool sight for a book nerd like me 🤓 . . . #seoul #korea #southkorea #politicalscience #arthistory #academiclife #conference @kpuarts @kwantlenu

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© Dorothy Barenscott, Avant-Guardian Musings, and dorothybarenscott.com, 2010-2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Dorothy Barenscott, Avant-Guardian Musings, and dorothybarenscott.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Google's new app has quickly topped the charts, and no one is surprised? Everybody would love to see if they have a painted doppelganger in the world's art museums.  

Google's new app has quickly topped the charts, and no one is surprised? Everybody would love to see if they have a painted doppelganger in the world's art museums.  

Focus on Tech: Some Initial Thoughts on Google's Arts and Culture Portrait App

January 25, 2018

I am one of those people who have never especially liked having their photograph taken. Maybe it’s the perceived lack of control, or being a child of the analog era when photos were mostly snapshots and amateur photographers lacked access to the technology and skill set necessary to create many multiple images that could be carefully edited and touched up with nifty post-production tools. Imagine a world without visual choice, where the first image taken was the only one that would be circulated or, worse, published and archived for posterity. Wouldn’t you love to see an Instagram feed of unedited selfies taken on the first try and published without the subject’s approval?

In many ways, that is the difference between the selfie culture we see today versus the portrait culture of the past. The element of agency and being both the subject and object of an image is a very new dynamic in the world of visual culture. Admittedly, even I have warmed to taking and posting the occasional selfie. Watching how people have engaged with the new Google Arts and Culture App has been eye-opening to me in this regard. Simple in its premise, but powerful in its outcome, the app instructs users to take a selfie and then be matched (using careful algorithms matching facial dimensions, colour, and composition using a highest degree system) to painted portraits in art collections part of the Google Arts Project.

Image grab from Slate's "Your A Work of Art: Not Necessarily a Beautiful One" making the point that "This may be the app’s secret: It charms because it simultaneously appeals to and deflates our narcissism." 

Image grab from Slate's "Your A Work of Art: Not Necessarily a Beautiful One" making the point that "This may be the app’s secret: It charms because it simultaneously appeals to and deflates our narcissism." 

I first took notice of the app when my Twitter feed began to be populated with comments about how the new Google app was making users feel very humble and reflective about their appearance. Most people reluctantly accepted their first matches without much reservation. Some women were amused at how their selfie morphed into a male match, others noted a best match that focused on one over-emphasized facial feature, or worse, matched them to someone much older and/or less attractive. Over the next few days, however, I noticed an uptick in experimentation as users realized that they could generate multiple matches by manipulating the algorithm with different poses, lighting, colours in the background, or even photographing old selfies versus “live” selfies. In other words, control and agency had entered back into the equation, along with the potential for gender fluidity and cross-cultural play. This I found especially telling with younger users who simply rejected anything less than a portrait match they found pleasing.

Graham Sutherland's portrait of Winston Churchill (1954) was cause for controversy and a very disapproving Churchill. 

Graham Sutherland's portrait of Winston Churchill (1954) was cause for controversy and a very disapproving Churchill. 

Looking back at art history, portraiture has long been utilized by artists to capture something beyond the sitter’s capacity to see with their own eyes. Because portraits were mostly reserved for the wealthy and elite (who could afford or have the status necessary to be painted), the images were mostly made to flatter and immortalize the subject, but they could also be met with surprise or outright disapproval when the artist took license or dared to tell the truth about the sitter. I am reminded here of a fantastic historical reenactment, on a recent episode of The Crown, of Winston Churchill having his portrait painted late in life.  The English artist Graham Sutherland was commissioned by both houses of the British government to paint a portrait commemorating Churchill’s 80th birthday. Sutherland, a modern artist, took greater liberties with the task than had been expected and ended up creating a representation that many declared made the great statesman look “dim-witted” and “weak.” The Crown episode focuses squarely on Churchill’s anxiety over the young painter making the portrait, further amplified in both real and metaphorical ways through the storyline of Churchill’s suspicion of modernism and fear of losing control of his health and the Britain he loved. In the end, Churchill’s wife quietly burns the portrait in a private act of disapproval after its public presentation.

The dramatization of Churchill being painted by Sutherland was beautifully executed on a recent episode of The Crown. 

The dramatization of Churchill being painted by Sutherland was beautifully executed on a recent episode of The Crown. 

So the intersection of selfie culture with portrait culture is indeed an intriguing and potentially critical moment, and one that I am still thinking over. To be sure, the biggest criticism of the app to date has to do with its perceived diversity problem. Articles ranging from Mashable’s “The Google Arts and Culture app has a race problem” to TechCrunch’s “Why inclusion in the Google Arts and Culture selfie feature matters” and Digg’s “Is Google’s Arts and Culture App Racist?” raise important questions. The problem, however, with much of the discourse has to do with a failure to understand the role and purpose of portraiture across art history. The painted portrait was not meant to reflect a diversity of peoples, and the very nature of European art history (the largest representative source in the Google Art Project) has been one of a history of erasures and exclusions, especially an underrepresentation of people of colour and other ethnicities. This of course is the burden and difficult legacy of art history that art historians unpack and use to promote critical and engaged visual literacy in the classroom. Unlike the selfie culture of today, which is rooted in the democratization of images and image circulation, the portrait culture of the past was limited and rife with cultural, social, and political stereotypes.

My very first try (using a recent bio picture) yielded an intriguing match-- one that had me going down a rabbit hole of research into an artist I had never hear of. 

My very first try (using a recent bio picture) yielded an intriguing match-- one that had me going down a rabbit hole of research into an artist I had never hear of. 

So what can be gained by this trendy new app? Is it simply appealing to our vanity, or can it be a tool of discovery and engagement? In my own initial match, I was pleasantly surprised to see something in the portrait chosen for me (interestingly, a contemporary self-portrait by a Russian artist named Yulia Sopina close to me in age) that captured far more than a mimetic copy. As one friend commented, “she has your ‘tude. It’s perfect!” I am hoping to find a way to use the tool in future courses and would love to hear from others about how they have interacted with it. If nothing else, we will be reminded once again how much easier it is to manipulate our own image today while discovering a whole new world of painted portraiture from the past.

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© Dorothy Barenscott, 2010-2025