The psychological / artistic significance of family portraits: Thomas Struth
This artist was suggested to me by my tutor in the feedback for assignment 4.
Struth's artistic work on family portraits influenced even part of my choices in assignment 5, which is in continuity with what was achieved in assignment 4.
The story that is at the origin of the work on family portraits is curious: a psychoanalyst friend of Struth's, in fact, during the analysis process, had the patients bring portraits of his own family. In this way, the doctor could deduce the psychological context in which the patient lived from the position that the members of the family had, with respect to each other, and their expression.
Struth was fascinated by this method, especially its content, and decided to work on family portraits.
Seen in this key, the portraits made by the German artist are truly interesting and come out of the classic meaning that a family portrait can assume, which is both intimate and formal at the same time.
 |
| Thomas Struth, The Richter family, Cologne, 1982 https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/10769, accessed on 21/12/2021 |
The viewer is induced to "stop time" and dwell on all the details of the image, be they people or things.
No matter what news we may or may not have about the members of the Richter family (by the way, Gerhard Richter had been a Struth professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dusseldorf), because we are still induced to investigate, reflect, fantasize about every detail and ask ourselves dozens of questions.
In this sense, the image tells us one of many stories, which we build independently.
 |
| Thomas Struth, The Smith Family, Fife, Scotland, 1989 https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/struth-the-smith-family-fife-scotland-1989-p77750, accessed on 21/12/2021 |
I can argue that Struth asked the subjects not to pose in any way, not to show the classic "smile of circumstance" in order to maintain the genuineness of the moment.
The result is effective and powerful: I, as a spectator, am induced to search for meanings, messages and answers that are prompted by apparently indecipherable expressions and unfamiliar (to me) contexts, as if I were at the same time an insider and an outsider.