Icons and Identities

Edited by Rab MacGibbon and Tanya Bentley.

Introduction by Rab MacGibbon.

Identity is complex, multifaceted and profoundly personal, and artists have developed innovative methods with which to explore it in images of both icons and less well-known figures. Icons & Identities examines how artworks encourage us to think about who we are and what we value, and illustrates how we are seen by society, through the variety, diversity and complexity of portraiture.

The works of art draw on a range of periods and highlight the ways in which artists and sitters have investigated themes of fame, power, love and loss, identity, innovation, and the self-portrait. Whether they are the product of the sixteenth or twenty-first century, portraits reveal and celebrate our shared humanity.