CHAPEL HILL.- The Ackland Art Museum opens the exhibit Up Close and Personal: Portraits of the Artist. Up Close and Personal showcases portraits by and of artists spanning three hundred years and in paintings, sculpture, assemblage, prints, drawings, photographs, and video.

Thematically organized, the exhibition highlights a wide range of attitudes and interpretations of life in the arts. Berenice Abbot’s elegant photograph of Peggy Guggenheim (1926) and Andy Warhol’s Liz (1964-65) express the cult of celebrity. Jim Dine’s Self-portrait on J.D. Paper (1978) and Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse’s bronze sculpture of Young Raphael (1855) suggest the belief in the artist as genius.

By contrast, many modern and contemporary artists like Käthe Kollwitz, Tony Ourlser, and Renée Stout interpret themselves and their compatriots as a means to question identity and offer social commentary. Symbolic portraits that allude to death, the passage of time, and the nature of spirituality are also represented by such works as Marc Chagall’s Self-portrait with Angel, Hendrik Hondius’ Portrait of Lucas van Leyden with Skull (before 1649), and Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin’s Point (1991-92).

Portraits of artists' studios and teaching spaces introduce the exhibition, and a gallery guide with images of other portraits will lead visitors on a treasure hunt through the whole museum.