Faces

Wherever the human figure appears in an image, the face is at the center. At the same time, the face defies all attempts to be captured in pictures. In the image, it freezes into a mask, against which the living face acts as a counterpart. Hans Belting explores this tension in his grand history of the face - the first ever written. It begins with the masks of the Stone Age and ends with the faces produced by modern mass media. In theatrical masks and the expressions of actors, in European portraiture and photography, in film and contemporary art, Belting uncovers the diverse attempts to seize the face and their constant failure against the life of the face and the self. This life is unrepresentable, remains resistant to all norms and clichés, yet continually pushes its way into the image. Even portrait art...