“Photo realist portraits seem to be all sweetness and light – and prettily painted pictures of pretty California people. Yet a closer viewing yields social and psychological insights. A fine artist with a fine sense of history, Shap is also unafraid to pay tribute – often with subtle humor – to the masters of the portrait tradition; Time magazine art critic Robert Hughes, for example, makes a fine, sybaritic Franz Hals.”
Peter Clothier, Art in America
“Shap comes across like a brilliant caricaturist without a malicious bone in her body. Critic Robert Hughes looks like the big, handsome Aussie he is, but Shap captures an edge of baroque, almost florid, naughtiness that conveys a sense that she’s both seen and seen through him.”
William Wilson, Los Angeles Times
Robert Hughes
1981 – Oil on Panel
37¾" x 40"
Collection of the Smithsonian Institute, National Portrait Gallery