Anti-Portraiture Conference, Birkbeck, 6 June

In the disciplines of art history and visual culture, the portrait is often understood as the depiction of a unique human subject. But what are the limits of portraiture? What can a portrait represent other than the visual or essential likeness of an individual or group?

This one-day conference aims to address non-traditional forms of portraiture and self-portraiture, and to explore the potential of the ‘anti-portrait’ for rethinking the boundaries of the genre. For the purposes of the conference we define the anti-portrait in the broadest possible terms as a work that simultaneously engages with and resists the conventional codes of portraiture.

We are delighted that the artist Susan Morris has agreed to provide our keynote address, which will be titled: 'The body that goes its own way: involuntary drawing as displaced self-portraiture.'

The full conference programme is available on our WordPress site: http://antiportraiture.wordpress.com