Contemporary Portrait Paintings
CONTEMPORARY STYLE
Used to refer to a time rather than an aesthetic, Contemporary art generally describes pieces created after 1970 or being made by living artists anywhere in the world. This immediacy means it encompasses art responding to the present moment through diverse subjects, media and themes. Contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, performance, digital art, video and more frequently includes work that is attempting to reshape current ideas about what art can be, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s use of candy to memorialize a lover he lost to AIDS-related complications to Jenny Holzer’s ongoing “Truisms,” a Conceptual series that sees provocative messages printed on billboards, T-shirts, benches and other public places that exist outside of formal exhibitions and the conventional “white cube” of galleries.
Contemporary art has been pushing the boundaries of creative expression for years. Its disruption of the traditional concepts of art are often aiming to engage viewers in complex questions about identity, society and culture. In the latter part of the 20th century, contemporary movements included Land art, in which artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer create large-scale, site-specific sculptures, installations and other works in soil and bodies of water; Sound art, with artists such as Christian Marclay and Susan Philipsz centering art on sonic experiences; and New Media art, in which mass media and digital culture inform the work of artists such as Nam June Paik and Rafaël Rozendaal.
The first decades of the 21st century have seen the growth of Contemporary African art, the revival of figurative painting, the emergence of street art and the rise of NFTs, unique digital artworks that are powered by blockchain technology.
Major Contemporary artists practicing now include Ai Weiwei, Cecily Brown, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Kara Walker.
Find a collection of Contemporary prints, photography, paintings, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.
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Style: Contemporary
Artist: Adam Mysock
A Fool
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
From Jan Matejko’s Stańczyk, 1862
I’ve heard that in centuries past, the jester – or fool – was often one of the only people able to speak truth to power. Because of their inherent ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
Distorted Perspectives
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
After: Jan Veth’s “Portrait of Cornelia, Clara, and Johanna Veth” from 1885.
ADAM MYSOCK was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1983 - the son of an elementary school English teacher and a...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Acrylic, Panel
A Lack of Consequence
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
From Rembrandt van Rijn’s Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq (The Night Watch), 1642
Forgive and forget. That’s what we’re taught to do ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Willing Ignorance
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
From John Singer Sargent’s Gassed, 1919
When considering the factors that are required (or at least helpful) for a lie to succeed, I constantly look to the audience. I constantly tr...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
An Allowance to Try Again
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
A portrait of the Wizard from The Wizard of Oz, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1939
Whenever I’ve watched The Wizard of Oz, I’ve always been struck by the same thing – that the actor who play...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
An Exciting Unknown
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
A portrait of Sasquatch (Harry from Harry and the Hendersons, Universal Pictures, 1987)
Developing almost simultaneously with my appreciation of mannequins, I fell in love with what...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Reliable Pardon
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
From Nicholas Poussin’s The Death of Sapphira, circa 1652
As we invariably test the waters of lying, we quickly learn to recognize the more forgiving...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Weak Compromise
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
A donkey, symbol of the Democratic Party
Democrats promote themselves as consistently ethical. So, when they inevitably get caught lying, the fault i...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Cautionary Tale
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
A portrait of Pinocchio from Pinocchio, Disney, 1940
Are there any more recognizable stories about the difficulties that can accompany lying than that of Pinocchio? For the puppet-...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Counter Example
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
A portrait of Abraham Lincoln
We’ve assigned a great deal of responsibility to our shared cultural figures when it comes to teaching lessons about truth, fiction, and morality. We u...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
An Audience Unaware
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
From Johannes Vermeer’s A Girl Asleep, 1656-57
Learning to lie is a bit like learning how to play a game. There are strategies. There’s an opponent. It can be fun because it’s a cha...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Wood Panel, Varnish, Acrylic
An Automated Message
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
From a series of paintings by Ed Valigursky.
Our technology is staggering. We now have computers that can lie for us. For proof you only need to head over to any online comment boar...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Horrifying Self-Actualization
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
From Thomas Eakins’ Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross (The Gross Clinic), 1875
At some point the lying has to stop, right? But when? I’m no longer convinced that any external stimulus...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Platform
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
A portrait of Ted Turner, founder of CNN and by extension a 24-hour news cycle
I’ll blame everything wrong with America on Ted Turner. Don’t misread me – h...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Repetition
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
A red-and-green parrot.
For a lie to gain real power, it must continue its existence separate from its creator. If it can be repeated by others, retold in a variety of contexts, it ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Tutor
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
A portrait of Kellyanne Conway
While the statement for this show indicates that there are no formal teachers of proper lying technique, it doesn’t deny that there are individuals ou...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Bit Too Far
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
From Thomas Eakins’ Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross (The Gross Clinic), 1875
As we seek this fine line separating safe lying from detrimental misdirection, we often have to cross it...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Tentative Probe
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
From Rembrandt van Rijn’s Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq (The Night Watch), 1642
The search for limits is an ongoing endeavor. Circu...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Wood Panel, Varnish, Acrylic
A False Prophet
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
A portrait of news anchor Brian Williams
Similar to the regular fall of the Democrats, Brian Williams positioned himself as a figure worthy of our trust nightly. He convinced us tha...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Sense of Guilt
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
A portrait of Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers
I suppose I like to believe that liars know they’re lying. I like to believe it’s a controlled activity. And if they...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Pretty Face and a Nice Body
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
A portrait of Lance Armstrong
We tend to exercise differing levels of tolerance for different liars. Some people get called out immediately, while oth...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Role Model
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
A portrait of Charles Ponzi
When we combine the power of lies to persuade with their ability to establish a false hierarchy, we end up with Charles Ponzi – the eponym of the Ponzi S...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
An Overreach
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
From an illustration by Arthur Rackham for Alice in Wonderland – “They all crowded round it panting and asking, ‘But who has won?’” 1907
There’s a fear of inferiority that lies behi...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Seduction
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
From John William Waterhouse’s A Mermaid, 1900
We have a wonderful capacity to impose fictions on others in order to make them desirable. We o...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Frail Attempt
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, 1484-86
We desire attention, but no one likes a show-off. So, we’ve sharpened our ability to practice false modesty. We pretend to cover ours...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A First Apology
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
A portrait of Mark McGwire
If we are caught lying, it is the suddenly being singled-out that proves most unsettling. We are temporarily relieved of our ability to define our own pub...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Bid to Gain Attention
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
A portrait of Baron Munchausen from The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Columbia Pictures, 1988
The concept of Munchausen Syndrome offers another per...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
An Opportunity to Test
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
From Thomas Eakins’ Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross (The Gross Clinic), 1875
Knowing what we do about insufficient consequences, we will always test the limits of acceptable lying. ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
An Attempt at Morality
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
From Albrecht Dürer’s Adam and Eve, 1507
Akin to the historical narratives we’re fed in an attempt to steer us away from a life of lies, the narrative of Adam, Eve, and the serpent ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Constant, Attractive Artifice
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
A mannequin
For some reason, mannequins seemed to be everywhere when I was growing up. Maybe it was growing up during the heyday of malls in America. Nevertheless, with their clearl...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
A Brush With Justice
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
From Nicholas Poussin’s The Death of Sapphira, circa 1652
Sooner or later, we get caught lying. For most of us, it’s incredibly early in life, and the falsehood detected is innocuou...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Portrait Paintings
Materials
Varnish, Acrylic, Wood Panel
Contemporary portrait paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Contemporary portrait paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add portrait paintings created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, orange, purple, pink and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Nemo Jantzen, America Martin, Jack Graves III, and Timothy Archer. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Fabric and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Contemporary portrait paintings, so small editions measuring 2 inches across are also available. Prices for portrait paintings made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $88 and tops out at $430,743, while the average work sells for $4,000.
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