Today I am going to talk about self-portraiture. A self-portrait is a huge undertaking for any artist. The most important thing is they have to decide is how they want to capture themselves, beyond just representing their physical appearance. Self-portraits show an artist’s style, vocation, and even their place in society, or just how they view themselves. Self-portraits became more popular in the mid-15^th century when mirrors became cheaper. Many artists create portraits of themselves spread out over their entire careers showing how their style may have grown or changed. The first artist to do this is Albrecht Durer, who created his first self-portrait at the age of 13 in 1484. He went on to create a portrait of himself at what he considered were the important chapters of his life.

http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/PictDisplay/Durer.html

Similarly, Rembrandt, a Bourgeoisie Baroque painter used self-portraits as a window into the themes and events of his life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-portraits_by_Rembrandt#mediaviewer/File:Rembrant_Self-Portrait,_1660.jpg

Many artists used their self-portraits to promote themselves, for example, David, in 1794, during the Neoclassicism movement portrayed himself as a dashing, young painter leaving out his flaws like the tumor he had on his face.

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/his/CoreArt/art/neocl_dav_self1794.html

Post-impressionist artists like Van Gogh, used their self-portraits as windows into the inner turmoil of their mind. Many paintings were of vibrant, or non-natural colors with harsh swirls that seem to represent brooding emotions. One of his paintings is more straightforward with his emotions, the one where he painted himself with the bandage over his ear shows that his thoughts were so crazy that he felt the need to cut off his own ear. Some artists used self-portraits as a form of practice, because who will sit as a model for you longer than you will sit for yourself? No one. For example, Van Gogh once said, “I purposely bought a mirror good enough to enable me to work from my image in default of a model, because if I can manage to paint the coloring of my own head, which is not to be done without some difficulty, I shall likewise be able to paint the heads of other good souls, men and women”.

http://www.wikiart.org/en/vincent-van-gogh/self-portrait-with-bandaged-ear-1889-1

During the Cubism period, Picasso painted very simplistic self-portraits that portrayed simplicity and energy.

 

http://www.wikiart.org/en/pablo-picasso/self-portrait-1907

Other artists, like Frida Kahlo, created 55 self-portraits (although most don’t make this many). She said that she made so many self-portraits “because I am so often alone… because I am the subject I know best”. She used her paintings to deal with the physical and emotional pain from her turbulent relationship with Diego. She mainly portrayed herself as a god-like entity surrounded by symbolic creatures and flora. Her style was one of the first to be more surreal and reflect the inner id.

http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/portraits/frida_kahlo.htm

In the mid-20th century, artists like Andy Warhol created pop-art self-portraits which were often very vibrant and eye-catching while also creating an ironic statement about himself.

http://www.queerty.com/13-most-wanted-men-andy-warhol-created-a-scandal-at-the-1964-worlds-fair-20140908/11-andy-warhol-self-portrait-1986-awf-300-dpi

Around the same time, realist/caricature portraits were becoming more popular with artists like Norman Rockwell. Although interesting and funny, these types of portraits normally don’t contain a deep meaning.

http://www.wikiart.org/en/norman-rockwell/self-portrait

One of the most famous modern day artist to do self-portraits in completely new way is Chuck Close. I could talk forever about him, but I will keep it brief. He used to be famous for his photorealism, through his massive-scale portraits (most are about 8’x9’). Then in 1988, a catastrophic spinal artery collapse left him severely paralyzed, but through the regained use of his right arm with a brace (and a paintbrush taped to his arm) he has continued to paint and produce work that is still amazing. He still creates the same style using cells and large canvases, but now he overlaps blocked colors in each cell so that they look like one coherent image. Even more interesting is why he started portraiture in the first place. He has prosopagnosia, otherwise known as “face-blindness”. He cannot recognize faces and therefore always made portraits of his family and friends to help remember and recognize their faces.

http://www.mosaicartnow.com/2010/07/prosopagnosia-portraitist-chuck-close/

There are so many more famous artists and their self-portraits that I have failed to mention in my broad overview of the history of self-portraits. Sorry for leaving them out, but if you want to check out more self-portraits here are the names of some more interesting artists: Paul Klee, Mary Cassat, Da Vinci, Matisse, Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali, M.C. Escher, Kathe Kollwitz, Basquiat, Romero Britto, and that is all I can really think of right now.

I hoped you enjoyed my post this week, as much as I enjoyed writing it! Sorry it went a little long. Here is a self-portrait that I made. What do you think I am trying to say about myself??