Self-Portrait
Sep 25th, 2007 by maoch
Please read Dana’s comment (first comment here) before discussing in a following comment your self-portrait. Images and texts are welcome. In addition to Dana’s questions, I ask that you tell us how large your self-portrait is.
Labille-Guiard, Self-Portrait with Two Pupils…, 1785
What would your Self-Portrait look like? (keep in mind the image of Labille-Guiard’s Self-Portrait)
What elements would you include in the background?
What clothes would you be wearing?
What would you be doing?
Would you face the viewer directly or not?
How big would it be?
Does the image of your Self-Portrait change if the intended viewer changes?
If I were to paint my “self portrait,” it would be a small scale work, maybe 8 1/2″ by 11″, of me as an infant, right out of the womb. This was the time before anyone or anything had the chance to influence me, and time hadn’t altered my physical body. The background would be light blue and I would be laying naked on a white pillow or blanket. I would paint myself exactly the way I looked when I first entered the world.
everytime i begin to think about what my self portrait would look like, it changes based on who the audience is. i think that’s only natural. if the audience was someone i was trying to impress i would probably paint myself in expensive but conservative clothes with a more upscale setting in the background. if the audience was people who i have an informal relationship with, id probably paint myself in casual clothes i might wear everyday, probably lying in bed reading or doing something that fits my personality. i used to think that point of a self portrait was to be as true to your own character as possible, but after class yesterday, i realized that’s usually not the case. as much as we might hope and say that’s the case, all art is very political.
Wow that’s a great idea.
If I were to paint a self portrait I think that it would certainly be less than 3 feet square. I would paint myself at this age, because I will never be as lovely as I am now. I would be in a den or private library with hundreds of books along the walls. I would be sitting on a chaise lounge wearing a dress that is nice and simple but not fancy. I would look up directly at the viewer from the book I hold in my hands. I would want my left hand to visible to show the ring that my boyfriend gave to me to emphasize that he is a part of my life as well. I’d also like a window behind that lets in a beautiful off-white light that shines on me (but not in a heavenly way, I know I’m not an angel). The colors would be earth-tones of brown, green, red, and tan. The only striking color would be my blue eyes staring at the viewer. I don’t think that I would be smiling either, I wouldn’t be frowning or scowling, just not smiling. I want the focus to be my eyes and I want them to convey that this is who I am…I work hard, I’m ineteresting and kind. If you want to come in an have a chat, please do. If not, I will get back to my book and move on.
Well. I think I might have discussed this in methods last year, but when asked to do a self portrait in 2D i drew myself as a vampire. oops. that aside…. if i was to do it again…
1. I agree with Nicole. it all depends on the audience. Yet at the same time, we dont have the same rigid standards as the women of the past had, so whether or not I face the viewer might have to do more with my mood at the time/inspiration/what not. I tend to be modest about my face; in photographs I usually make an ugly face as some sort of excuse, but in an actual portrait rather than portray myself making a face I just wouldnt make direct eye contact.
2. I like dresses. I like getting dressed. I would be wearing something “cute” regardless of who was seeing it.
3. You know what. I want to be old in my portrait. Kinda haggard and rough looking. But by looking at me you can tell I lived a good long life and am well traveled/read and what not. I dont really see anything in the background eigher, just some nice colors. The pose wouldnt be all that formal because I am not. Maybe i will be wearing the locket that belonged to my grandma that my mom gave me to keep the Hovanesian tradition alive.
4. Its not too big, not too small.
When it comes to a self-portrait I have never really thought about how i would depict myself, but now when i think about it….
1) It would probably be small in size. Nothing big or bold.
2) I probably wouldn’t face the viewer directly. Instead my face would probably be turned slightly.
3) The background of my painting would probably be a landscape, most likely desert, since I love spending time out in Arizona. Though I do like the idea of being in a room surrounded by a lot of books. In either setting though I would probably include my dog because it me he represents companionship, devotion, and love.
4) I would probably be wearing something that I feel good in- Something that I feel comfortable in.
My self-portrait would be like the woman facing the viewer in Hopper’s Chop Suey seen here:
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/hopper/interior/hopper.chop-suey.jpg
Everything in this image would be the same (same clothes, same companion, same setting, even the same size 32in. x 38in.,etc) as in Hopper’s except obviously my face would replace the woman’s face…and I think I would like a cheeseburger to be on the table in front of me.
I was going to end this comment there but then I thought it kind of sounded like I didn’t put any THOUGHT into it.
SO….
I recently saw this painting in the Hopper exhibit at NashGal in DC and I wanted to tear it off the wall and run like a mad woman. I.LOVE.IT. It reminded me so much of many of the best conversations I have had with close friends or even acquaintences. Just two people sitting at a table in a conversation-friendly setting. It is comforting….
About the cheesburger…I am currently in a cheeseburger craving phase which doesn’t appear to be passing very quickly.
I have done countless self portraits, but I put up the 5 most developed recent ones on my blog, and I will talk about 3 of them here.
http://mollybigmonkeybird.umwblogs.org/?author=121
The first is a sculptural portrait of me and my grandfather, who was an artist. My approach to this self portrait is similar to Adelaide Labille-Guiard because it features a male family figure who was also an artist. His grinning skeletal face expresses his presumed approval of my art making, and I am eating a chunk of him which implies my desire to emulate his artistic qualities. As Vigee Lebrun possibly grips at an absent phallus, I too address the issue of gender in my self portrait. I intentionally depicted myself without any superficial characteristics thought to be feminine. I have no hair and the body of a worm, so that I am not defined by sexuality in this portrait, but by my personality. My eating him implies my desire to be like this male figure, very similar to Vigee Lebrun gripping her invisible phallus. This portrait is a representation of my mind and relationship with my grandfather rather than myself as a physical being.
The self portrait in oil is nearly the opposite, because it is more focused on physicality and sensuality. It is about life size, and the gaze is looking directly at the viewer. The sensuality of this portrait parallels Adelaide Labille-Guiard and her plunging neckline. I painted myself wearing the pod earrings that look like vaginas. Earrings are culturally feminine objects, and the vaginal pods reference fertility and feminine sexuality. The pink shirt can be interpreted in a similar way. However, the complicated expression on my face and direct downward gaze at the viewer takes the portrait beyond an image of cliché woman symbols. The downward gaze is really indefinable, but it references portraits of royalty who looked down at the viewer to show their power and authority. The diagonals in the background reinstate the subtle drama of the downward gaze.
The last portrait I painted in Paris this summer. I’m standing in the field where Van Gogh shot himself. The black sweater I wear is reminiscent of the crows in one of his last paintings. The background shows my experience in France this summer and indicates a desire to connect myself to an admired artist of the past, similar to the way Vigee Lebrun references Rubens in her self portrait.
I don’t create with a particular audience in mind, but my intension is to communicate with the viewer some exaggerated aspect of my self that I don’t typically express in my daily behavior.
[…] self-portraits, and we were asked to think about what our own might look like. In the discussion, other people were describing theirs in great detail, and I can imagine how I might want to see […]
I wrote a response in my blog with a few images of self portraits I have done recently.
http://mollybigmonkeybird.umwblogs.org/
[…] post comes in response to the self portrait question on the ARTH 460 […]
I would like a Victorian silhouette portrait, black paper profile cut-out, pasted on a white paper background. In a oval shaped gilded metal frame. No bigger than a sheet of paper.
History of the paper cut sihouttes (according to a CBS News story, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/10/sunday/main2244000.shtml): The art form got its name from a 18th Century French politician, Monsieur Etienne de Silhouette, a finance minister. He was known for cutting budgets and and being a cheapskatae. If you went to a Big Lots in France (La Grand Parcelle) and got a futon for $17 it would be considered ”a la silhouette,” a cheap deal.
Paper cutting was ‘”a la silhouette,” a really cheap art form compared to your average portrait done in oils. On my budget this style of portraiture would be in my price range.
Contemporary artist working with silhouttes: Kara Walker (http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/walker/index.html). She plays with this seemingly naive genre of art to create images that provoke questions about race and gender.
A paper cut out by her could easily go for $6,000. Not so “a la silhouette.”
As someone who’s been concentrating on self-portraits for over a decade I’ve figured out that self-portraits are not something that most artists do for other people (think Frida Kahlo). They are something personal and will usually reflect who the artist is at the time the work is produced.