Self meets Self

Self Portraits and A Note on Selfies

Self-Portraits have always been a way for artists to project themselves into their work. Not only does it allow for an artist to showcase their talent and technique, but oftentimes there are many personal aspects about the artist that can be coded into the image, such as setting, activity, and iconography to give insight into the psyche and motivation of the individual. The three artists I have chosen I enjoy a great deal and while I have selected my personal favorite pieces of all three, there still remains a large scope of work from each that is worth checking out.

Chuck Close, Big Self-Portrait, 1967-1968.

I have been an admirer of Chuck Close for several years. One of the things that has always attracted me to his work is the method he uses to create his photo-realist portraits. Close suffers from Prosopagnosia which causes face blindness where he unable to remember a person's face once they have left his direct line of vision. To be able to create his large, realistic portraits he incorporates a grid system that allows him to focus on small portions of a face, instead of the overall features. Big Portrait is not only my favorite Close piece, but it is also one of my favorite works of art overall. I am attracted to several aspects of this work including the direct, centered composition, the tonality, the shadows, and the expression.

Yasumasa Morimura, An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo (Hand Shaped Earring), 2001.

I discovered Japanese artist Yasumasa Morimura's work last semester during a course on contemporary art. As an Art History major his work instantly appealed to me, especially in his pieces in which he uses appropriation to recreate famous works of art by inserting himself as the focal figure. Furthermore, the questions of gender and culture he investigates through his art are intriguing to me. I chose this piece because I also enjoy the work of Frida Kahlo, and I feel like both Morimura and Kahlo can be paralleled through their work since both tend to explore roles of gender and what it means to be an 'Other' when it comes to the cultures they are submerged in.

Francesca Woodman, House #4, 1976.

I wanted to include a female artist into my exploration of self portraiture, and while it was hard to choose just one, I decided to select Francesca Woodman. Several aspects of her life as an artist have fascinated me, from the amount of work she produced during her short life (she committed suicide in 1981 at the age of 22,) to the fact that there are still several photographs yet to be seen of hers since her parents, who are also artists, took control of her estate after her death. I specifically chose House #4 because I enjoy the blurred movement of her body from the lengthened exposure time, her motivation of making herself "disappear" or become infused with the structure around her, and the idea that a self-portrait does not have to contain the artist's face which I feel almost makes the image more intriguing.

A Note on Self-Portraits and "Selfies":

The selfie is a sub-section of self-portraiture that I feel has been gaining notoriety for some time now. While it is oftentimes considered low-brow and over the top, it can also provide an opportunity for an individual to make decisions that any artist would have to make regarding composition, lighting and expression. Selfies have become a large part of popular culture today with the help of social media, but it should be noted that the selfie is not a new invention. Photographers such as Vivian Maier were making this particular type of image long before it gained the popularity it has today.

Vivian Maier rocking the selfie in 1956.