Portraiture is the unexpected survivor of the modern movement. Even as photography took over the role of recording likeness--and artists questioned the representational basis of art--almost all the most important artists of the 20th century experimented with portraiture, and many made it a central feature of their work. As the commissioned portrait became more the province of specialists working in conservative styles, avant-garde portraiture became an affair between artists, their friends, and--with the proliferation of self-portraits--their own selves.
Focusing on avant-garde European...