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Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level H , Case CUP2, Shelf 11 & 12

Made up Love Song, Part 8

Photograph
2011 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Bettina von Zwehl was born in Munich in 1971 and received an MA from the Royal College of Art, London in 1999. She began making portraits at the RCA, adopting the approach of 19th-century studio photographers. It was an approach she had first encountered as an assistant to Araldo de Luca in Rome, working on 10" x 8" film with a large-plate camera. Her work to date has been primarily inspired by a fascination for the human face and human relations, and she has built an international reputation for her subtle and unnerving portraits. She explains: ‘My work is an ongoing enquiry into the possibilities of portraiture and its fine nuances. With each series, I aim to depict psychological states in everyday life using controlled conditions to search for some note of perfect balance in which the sense of an intimate humanity might be revealed.'

Made up Love Song is a series of 34 portrait photographs produced during von Zwehl’s residency at the V&A Sackler Centre (January - June 2011). The photographs depict V&A Visitors Services Assistant Sophia Birikorang, who sat for von Zwehl two or three times a week over the six-month period. Her expression is contemplative, her face illuminated by natural light that streams through an unseen window.

During the residency, von Zwehl focussed her initial research on the portrait miniatures displayed in Room 90a, which she described as ‘a magical room containing the most fragile and light sensitive images’. She sought to connect her project to the the notion of the painted miniature as ‘portable art’ by introducing the miniature size into her photographic practice. The experience of viewing these photographs, which are intimate in scale and set in exquisite bespoke frames, is intended to evoke the experience of viewing precious portrait miniatures through a magnifying glass at low light.

Other objects in the Museum’s collection that von Zwehl found inspirational included the Buddhist limestone sculptures from the Northern Qi dynasty, historic picture frames, and nineteenth-century paper silhouettes. She dedicated many hours to viewing photographs from the collection in the Prints & Drawings Study Room, including the elegant portrait photographs by Irving Penn and the rigorous typologies of industrial buildings by Bernd and Hilla Becher. She also undertook research in the National Art Library, broadening her knowledge of the history of the 'profile view' in medals, miniature paintings and other small portrait types such as plumbagos.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleMade up Love Song, Part 8 (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
photography
Brief description
Photograph by Bettina Von Zwehl from the series 'Made up Love Song,' C-type print, 2011
Physical description
A portrait of a woman taken in profile.
Dimensions
  • Frame width: 16.5cm
  • Frame height: 16.5cm
  • Image diameter: 5.8cm
Production typeLimited edition
Credit line
Purchased with the support of the Friends of the V&A and the Cecil Beaton Royalties Fund
Subject depicted
Association
Summary
Bettina von Zwehl was born in Munich in 1971 and received an MA from the Royal College of Art, London in 1999. She began making portraits at the RCA, adopting the approach of 19th-century studio photographers. It was an approach she had first encountered as an assistant to Araldo de Luca in Rome, working on 10" x 8" film with a large-plate camera. Her work to date has been primarily inspired by a fascination for the human face and human relations, and she has built an international reputation for her subtle and unnerving portraits. She explains: ‘My work is an ongoing enquiry into the possibilities of portraiture and its fine nuances. With each series, I aim to depict psychological states in everyday life using controlled conditions to search for some note of perfect balance in which the sense of an intimate humanity might be revealed.'

Made up Love Song is a series of 34 portrait photographs produced during von Zwehl’s residency at the V&A Sackler Centre (January - June 2011). The photographs depict V&A Visitors Services Assistant Sophia Birikorang, who sat for von Zwehl two or three times a week over the six-month period. Her expression is contemplative, her face illuminated by natural light that streams through an unseen window.

During the residency, von Zwehl focussed her initial research on the portrait miniatures displayed in Room 90a, which she described as ‘a magical room containing the most fragile and light sensitive images’. She sought to connect her project to the the notion of the painted miniature as ‘portable art’ by introducing the miniature size into her photographic practice. The experience of viewing these photographs, which are intimate in scale and set in exquisite bespoke frames, is intended to evoke the experience of viewing precious portrait miniatures through a magnifying glass at low light.

Other objects in the Museum’s collection that von Zwehl found inspirational included the Buddhist limestone sculptures from the Northern Qi dynasty, historic picture frames, and nineteenth-century paper silhouettes. She dedicated many hours to viewing photographs from the collection in the Prints & Drawings Study Room, including the elegant portrait photographs by Irving Penn and the rigorous typologies of industrial buildings by Bernd and Hilla Becher. She also undertook research in the National Art Library, broadening her knowledge of the history of the 'profile view' in medals, miniature paintings and other small portrait types such as plumbagos.
Associated objects
Bibliographic reference
Made up love song / Bettina von Zwehl. London: V&A Publishing, 2014 Number: 9781851778225
Collection
Accession number
E.50-2012

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Record createdSeptember 21, 2013
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