"Davis was a folk artist who did very flat portraits of common folk in southern New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island," Mr. Liverant said.
She cited Richard Avedon's portraits of celebrities, their scars and barnacles exposed, as an inspiration for her own portraits of common leaves.
Neel became involved in government art projects during the '30s but dedicated most of her energy to producing unconventional portraits of common people living in Greenwich Village and Harlem.
Ms. Zendel's film succeeds in creating a convincing portrait of a common show business type, the insecure assistant (or publicist or script reader) who surrenders everything to an abusive but charismatic boss (also a common show business type).
It felt beautiful to try to make a portrait of something so common.
The leaders came from reasonably well-off families, though several interviewed said a common portrait of them as privileged children of the rich was a caricature.
As the science writer Richard Ellis demonstrates in his 1998 book, "The Search for the Giant Squid," from these disparate accounts emerged a common portrait of a singular beast: a huge sea creature, with fearsome appendages — arms or horns or feet or legs or tails — that jutted out of its head.
But regardless of the award, there is, I think, a recognition that she has done something amazing with this role - delivered an awe-inspiringly human portrait of an exploitation so common, and so ignored, that it makes the news only when it involves some horrible death.
Bangkok Days is a refreshing diversion from the common portrait of the city's licentious reputation.
One common portrait of the difference between the Chinese and Western traditions posits a radical incommensurability on the very nature of philosophical inquiry.
