section 2 syllabus focusarchive.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/__data/page/8860/selfportrait_edkit2.pdf ·...

WORKS IN PROFILE

ARTIST AT THE EASEL Sofonisba Anguissola Self-portrait at the easel, painting a devotional panel 1556

Annibale Carracci Self-portrait on an easel in a workshop c1605

PLAYING WITH MIRRORS Pierre Bonnard Self-portrait c1938–40

ARTIST AS WOMAN Artemisia Gentileschi Self-portrait as the Allegory of Painting 1638–39

Jenny Saville Juncture 1994

ROLE PLAY Christofano Allori Judith with the head of Holofernes 1613

Judith Leyster Self-portrait 1630

BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH Pieter-Jacobsz van Laer Self-portrait 1638–39

Andy Warhol Self-portrait (strangulation) 1978

SPECIALIST Vincent van Gogh Self-portrait with felt hat 1888

OF SELF-PORTRAITS Rembrandt (studio of) Rembrandt 1660s

THE BODY OF PAINT Gerhard Richter Self-portrait 1996

Francis Bacon Self-portrait 1971

SIGNIFICANT OTHERS Gerlach Flicke Gerlach Flicke with Henry Strangwish (or Strangways) 1554

Richard Hamilton Four Self-portraits – 05.3.81 1990

24 SELF PORTRAIT: RENAISSANCE TO CONTEMPORARY EDUCATION KIT AGNSW

SECTION 2 SYLLABUS FOCUS

SOFONISBA ANGUISSOLA

Sofonisba Anguissola’s numerous, inventive self-portraits,mostly painted before she left her native Cremona to join the Spanish Habsburg court, were a means of self-promotion.In this self-portrait the new theme of the artist at work isingeniously related to the legend that St Luke the Evangelistpainted the first portrait of the Virgin Mary. Anguissola boldlyassumes the masculine role of St Luke, the patron saint ofartists, and exploits the traditional symbolism of the VirginMary as an immaculate mirror. This further ‘reflection’transforms the portrait of a virtuous noblewoman into animage of natural creativity – the vibrant picture of the idealmother with her child.

ANNIBALE CARRACCI

Annibale Carracci’s crowning achievement was painting thegreat Farnese ceiling in Rome. The son of a Bolognese tailor,he was praised by theorists for reconciling naturalism withclassical ideals but in contrast to many gentlemen painters, he advised artists ‘not to start taking on grand airs beyondwhat is warranted by one’s own natural circumstances’. To Michelangelo’s claim that ‘we paint with our brain, notwith our hands’ he apparently responded, ‘we painters have to speak with our hands.’ This picture presents the artist at one remove, in a painting within a painting, framed by thescene of its production. Though symbolically disembodied anddismembered, the artist remains present in the material tracescreated with his hands.

K–6 LOOKING AND MAKING AND CROSS KLA LINKS

Visual Art Look at both of these paintings. List all thesimilarities and differences you can find between them.

Look at the painting Self-portrait at the easel, painting adevotional panel, 1556 by Sofonisba Anguissola. Why isAnguissola painting this picture of herself? Who is it for? Paint a portrait of yourself for someone close to you using only objects which symbolise yourself. Make the setting aplace where you spend a lot of time. Choose colours, patternsand a painting style which reflect your personality.

Science and Technology Look at the painting Self-portrait atthe easel, painting a devotional panel, 1556 by SofonisbaAnguissola. What clues tell you that this person is an artist?List all the equipment you can see this artist using. Are any ofthese tools similar to those you might use to make a self-portrait? Find out the names of any unfamiliar tools andinvestigate the way that artists made paint in the 1550s.

HSIE Sofonisba Anguissola is painting a devotional panel onthe easel within this painting. What is a devotional panel?Where would you find one? What are they used for? Are theystill used in modern society? Research examples.

7–12 FRAMING QUESTIONS AND ARTMAKING ACTIVITIES

• Artists express a strong desire to communicate with posterity,often going to great lengths to convey their layered personaland social circumstances to establish their identity and theirstatus as creative artists.

Consider this statement by Anthony Bond, curator of thisexhibition. What evidence can you find in the work ofSofonisba Anguissola and Annibale Carracci to support thisstatement? Think about composition, dress, studio setting and the subject matter each artist has chosen for their paintingwithin a painting.

How does the presence or absence of the artist affect themessage conveyed? Research the reasons a female artist in the 1550s might have for creating a self-portrait at the easel.

• Michelangelo said that ‘we paint with our brain, not with our hands’, to which Annibale Carracci responded ‘we paintershave to speak with our hands’. Discuss the meaning of thisexchange. How does Carracci’s painting communicate themanual labour involved in painting? What can we infer aboutthe character of this painter from the way he has chosen todepict himself?

Compare this self-portrait with those by Diego Rodríguez deSilva y Velázquez and Elizabeth-Louise Vigée Lebrun in thisexhibition. In what ways has Carracci challenged theconventional depiction of the artist as an aristocrat orintellectual?

• Each of these portraits displays aspects of the mechanics of painting and conveys information about the tools andtechnologies used by Renaissance artists to make a self-portrait,such as an easel, brush, oil paint and a maulstick. Theyillustrate the moment the act of painting takes place and soconvey a sense of immediacy and authenticity. Whattechnologies could be used now? Consider computer programssuch as Photoshop and Illustrator, digital cameras or time basedmedia such as film and music.

Experiment with a range of such technologies to make a portraitof yourself which communicates information about the toolsused to make it.

Compare the finished work with an oil painting from the 1600sand identify similarities and differences. Think about the speedof new technology and the way in which its ability to capturethe moment changes the experience of viewing the work.


ARTIST AT THE EASEL


ARTIST AT THE EASEL Sofonisba AnguissolaSelf portrait at the easel, painting a devotional panel 1556

oil on canvas 66 x 57 cmMuseum-Zamek, Lancut, Poland


ARTIST AT THE EASEL Annibale CarracciSelf-portrait on an easel in a workshop c1605

oil on wood, 37 x 32 cmGalleria degli Uffizi, Collezione degli Autoritratti, Firenze

PIERRE BONNARD

A founding member of the French Nabi movement and aradiant colourist, Pierre Bonnard painted almost a dozen self-portraits, most of them depicting the introspective artist inlater life. He was fascinated by the possibilities of mirrorreflections and exploited them for their tantalisingly obliqueglimpses into his private realm. This iridescent self-portraitdates to the period of the German occupation in France, whenthe 73-year-old-painter was living in Le Cannet near Cannes.He depicts himself in deep concentration, his desire tounderstand and fulfil himself as an artist undiminished.Bonnard’s late self-portraits defied the climate of the times. He wrote, ‘I am working a lot, immersed more and moredeeply in this outdated passion for painting’.


Visual Art Look at the self-portrait by Pierre Bonnard. How ishe feeling? What mood does his facial expression and use ofcolour convey? What room do you think he is in? Draw the restof the room he is in using similar colours. Photocopy your workand paint it in different colours to create different moods.

Maths Set up two mirrors with yourself in between to generatean ‘infinite regression’ of images. Wave your arm and observethe infinite number of arms waving. Try and see your facebehind the front face. Is it possible? Make a self-portrait using a sheet of transparent plastic tapedon to a mirror. Look into it and use a marker pen to trace yourfeatures onto the plastic. Photocopy the clear plastic and fill inthe space around your face with collages and pictures of thingsor places which represent you.

Science and Technology Make a surrealistic sculptural self-portrait. Choose an object which somehow represents you andmake a sculpture which has a model of your head with theobject as your body. Think about how you will solve problemswith materials and techniques.

Drama Work in pairs in class. Set up a mirror and examineyour faces noticing the physical characteristics. Pull faces and see how many different expressions you can make. Thinkof the range of emotions – happiness, fear, anger, sadness andcontentedness – and try to demonstrate them to see differentsides to yourself. Find two contrasting expressions, one foreach of you, and invent a conversation between these‘characters’ and act it out.


• Pierre Bonnard was fascinated by the possibilities of mirrorreflections. Look at his painting Self-portrait c1938–40. Whereis he? Is he in a public or private place? Do you think the lightis natural or artificial? Analyse this work in terms of colour,space, composition, body language and direction of the gaze.

Compare Bonnard’s use of colour with the cold effect createdin Freud’s work and find other similarities or differencesbetween the two works. How has Bonnard communicated a sense of vulnerability and fragility?

• Mirrors show our faces but self-portraits reveal our souls.Consider this statement by writer AS Byatt. Look at LucienFreud’s self-portrait Interior with hand mirror (self-portrait)1967. Describe the atmosphere within this painting. Whatfeelings does it evoke in you? How has the artist used paint,space, colour, lighting and composition to create a sense ofpsychological unease and dislocation?

Consider the positioning of the mirror and the stronghorizontals and verticals of the window frame, the treatment of the face and the effect created by the edge of the mirror.What has this self-portrait revealed of the soul of this artist?Discuss.

• Compare Lucien Freud’s self-portrait with Self-portrait in the studio 1976 by Australian artist Brett Whiteley. What roledo the objects in this work play in communicating informationabout the artist and his life? Why do you think Freud chose tofocus on his face?

Set up a mirror in your room or classroom in which you cansee your own reflection and part of the room around you.Construct your composition so that your painting shows whatyou can see in the mirror, the edge of the mirror and some ofthe surrounding room. Think about lighting and space andinclude objects chosen to symbolise aspects of your characterand life.


PLAYING WITH MIRRORS


PLAYING WITH MIRRORS Pierre BonnardSelf-portrait c1938–40

oil on canvas 76.2 x 61 cmArt Gallery New South Wales, purchased 1972© Estate the artist. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney 2006

ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI

Artemisia Gentileschi was trained by her father Orazio whilehe was a follower of Caravaggio. She pursued her career inFlorence, Naples, Rome and London. When she was 19 the artentrepreneur Agostino Tassi was convicted of her rape. Muchof Artemisia’s subsequent work seems to refer to this episode,in biblical scenes of female heroism and vengeance. In thisself-portrait, painted in her mid 40s, Gentileschi appears as ayouthful ‘Pittura’, the female personification of Paintingdescribed in Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia, an influential dictionarypublished in Rome in 1593. Through this inspired device, sheidentifies directly with Painting, subverting contemporaryideas of an implicitly masculine intellect acting upon passive,implicitly feminine, matter.

JENNY SAVILLE

Jenny Saville studied at the Glasgow School of Art, where she completed her studies in 1992. Talking about her owncommitment to painterly quality she says: ‘de Kooning is mymain man really, because he just did everything you can dowith paint. He reversed it, dripped it, and scraped it. But I wantto hold on to a certain amount of reality’. It is significant thatSaville mentions de Kooning because of his notoriousmutilation of the female form. Her own figures are a littlemonstrous and often depicted from unusual angles, perhaps tocounter the masculine gaze. Saville’s use of a photograph ratherthan a mirror to create this picture of herself has enabled her toturn away from traditional conventions of self-portraiture.


Visual Art Look at the painting Juncture 1994 by Jenny Saville.What effect does the size of this work have on you? Experimentwith mixing paints and other media to create skin tones. Areyou surprised by any of the colours you use? Try using yourpaints to create a fleshy quality. Experiment with differentmaterials and decide which give the best effect of skin. Imaginehow much paint you would need to mix to make a painting thesize of Saville’s work.

Science and Technology Flatten and squash your face against a piece of clear glass or perspex. Have someone elsephotograph or draw the result. Scan it into the computer andchange it around. Play with the different effects that distortioncan give. Try making a mean face or a pleasant one.

HSIE Look at the painting Self-portrait as the Allegory ofPainting 1638–39 by Artemisia Gentileschi. What is the painterwearing? Do you think these are appropriate clothes for paintingin? Why do you think she depicted herself in this dress?Research the way women dressed in Italy in the 17th century.

Maths Think about the way Gentileschi made this painting ofherself. Can you paint yourself in this position by looking inonly one mirror? Using several mirrors, position them to tryand work out how the artist could view herself in this positionand from this angle.


• Study the painting Self-portrait as the Allegory of Painting,1638–39 by Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi. What is anallegory? In this work Gentileschi portrays herself as theallegorical figure Pittura, the female personification ofPainting, a subject traditionally painted by male artists using a female model as Pittura. Find examples of such works andcompare them with Gentileschi’s treatment of the same subject.

In what ways does Gentileschi challenge traditional notions of the woman as an object in the history of painting? Researchthe theory of the gaze in art history and, in particular, relationto the representation of women. In what ways do bothGentileschi and Saville disrupt the traditional ways of viewinga painted woman?

• I want people to know what it is they’re looking at. But at thesame time, the closer they get to the painting, it’s like goingback into childhood. And it’s like an abstract piece. It becomesthe landscape of the brush marks rather than just sort of anintellectual landscape. Jenny Saville, quoted in exhibition catalogue

Look at Juncture 1994 by Jenny Saville. What is yourimmediate physical response when confronted by this work?Write a list of descriptive words which convey the feelings you associate with it, eg burst, strain, squashed and so on. How has Saville emphasized the materiality of her body? Is it an ‘ideal’ body? Explain your answer. Think about scale,colour, treatment of flesh and composition.

Read and compare the body language used by these two artistsand then role play the kinds of movements they would bemaking. Make sounds to suit. How does each woman feelwithin her body?

• Play a game to increase your awareness of body language,movement and gesture and their power to encapsulatepersonality. Have three class members sit together withoutspeaking for one minute while the rest of the class observesthem. Focus your attention on one of the three and thendiscuss what you observed. Try reproducing their movementsfor the rest of the class and let them judge your success.


ARTIST AS WOMAN


ARTIST AS WOMAN Artemisia GentileschiSelf-portrait as the allegory of Painting 1638–39

oil on canvas 96.5 x 73.7 cmThe Royal Collection, lent by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2005


ARTIST AS WOMAN Jenny SavilleJuncture 1994

oil on canvas 284.5 x 167.6 cmMarguerite & Robert Hoffman Collection© Jenny Saville, courtesy Gagosian Gallery

CHRISTOFANO ALLORI

Allesandro Allori was the adopted son and pupil of theFlorentine court painter Agnolo Bronzino, whose refined styleand characteristic facial type Allori emulates here. This is anearly example of a new kind of self-portrait, presenting thepainter at work rather than in the honorific pose of agentleman. Allori portrays himself observing himself, lookingat himself in a mirror, his delicately poised brush pointing to a painting that remains hidden from view. The ignobleconnotations of manual labour are effaced by the artist’sintense mental and spiritual reflection. His direct experienceof the world is connected to an ideal image that cannot be seenand remains always a work-in-progress.

JUDITH LEYSTER

Unlike many women artists, Judith Leyster lacked an artistic orelevated background, but in 1647–48 was praised as a ‘leadingstar’ of her hometown of Haarlem. This, her only known self-portrait, was intended to show off her skills to prospectivecustomers, and was perhaps her admission piece to thePainters’ Guild of St Luke. Her own portrait is as refined as any client might desire. The laughing fiddler, more sketchilydepicted on the panel, is a motif in one of her genre paintings.The theatrical, bawdy musician is recognisable as a comic alterego of the painter herself.


Visual Art Look at Self-portrait 1630 by Judith Leyster. Countthe brushes the artist is holding in her hand. Why do you thinkshe has so many? Experiment with different brush sizes and trypainting yourself with each one. Assess the different results.Which one do you like most?

Music Compare the way the musician in the ‘painting within apainting’ in Leyster’s work is holding his instrument with theway the artist holds her brush. Act out the movements eachwould make in creating their art and music. Find and listen todifferent examples of music from the 1600s. How is it differentfrom modern music?

English Look at this painting Judith with the head ofHolofernes 1613 by Christofano Allori and try to imagine thestory the artist might be telling. Tell this story collaborativelywith members of your class, taking turns to each add asentence. Record the story and illustrate it. Exhibit your workand assess the different results.

Drama Using paper, card and paper doilies, make a collar likethe one Judith Leyster wears in her self-portrait. Alternativelyyou could make a bonnet or corset. Walk around wearing your costumes and notice the way it affects your movements.Role-play being a person from the 17th century. Researchchildren’s dress from this time. Was it the same as adultcostume?

7–12 FRAMING QUESTIONS AND ART MAKING ACTIVITIES

• Look at Self-portrait 1630 by Judith Leyster, a Dutch artistwho became the only female member of the Haarlem painters’guild. Describe the mood of the work and analyse the way thatbody language and facial expression contribute to it. Leysteroriginally painted a self-portrait on the canvas within thispainting but painted over it with a picture of the laughingmusician. Why do you think she did this? What similaritiesare there between the two? Look at facial similarities, pose,gesture and mood. Is the new work still a self-portrait?

Compare this painting with Self-portrait at the easel, paintinga devotional panel 1556 by Sofonisba Anguissola. Bothwomen are at their easels. How are they similar or different?Think of other artists who have explored a cross genderpersona such as Marcel Duchamp and Yasumasa Morimuraand find examples of their work.

• Look at Judith with the head of Holofernes 1613 byChristofano Allori. Which person in this painting is the artistwho made the self-portrait? Discover the story of this paintingby reading the exhibition catalogue and wall texts. Why did this artist choose to portray himself in such a dramaticfashion? Find and look at other examples of artists who haveincluded a self-portrait of themselves as a character in anarrative painting such as Michelangelo’s painting The lastjudgement 1535–41 on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel inRome, in which the artist portrayed himself as StBartholomew.

• Self-portraiture has been described as performing the self. Is every self-portrait a performance by the artist? Discuss thisidea with your class and refer to these two paintings. Considerpose, dress, persona, expression and style. Compare them withother self-portraits in this exhibition. In what way are they alsoa performance? How does such a performance simultaneouslymask and reveal the self?

Artists in the Renaissance viewed the formation of the self as an artful, self-conscious process. Do you agree with this? To what extent is it possible to consciously construct yourown identity? Can you become what you pretend to be? How do you want to be seen? What do you want to hide?

Consider the differences between your public and privatepersona. Think of an archetypal persona such as a ‘bad girl’, a celebrity, a sports hero and so on. Stage a photo shoot whereyou embody that persona. Look at the work of other artistswho have explored role play such as Cindy Sherman andTracey Moffatt.


ROLE PLAY


ROLE PLAY Christofano AlloriJudith with the head of Holofernes 1613

oil on canvas 120.4 x 100.3 cmThe Royal Collection, lent by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2005


ROLE PLAY Judith LeysterSelf-portrait 1630

oil on canvas 74.6 x 65.3cmCollection National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, gift of Mr & Mrs Robert Woods Bliss© Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

PIETER-JACOBSZ VAN LAER

Pieter-Jacobsz van Laer was the leader of the ‘Bentveughels’(birds of a feather), a band of northern European artists in Romethat challenged the Establishment. They painted the city’sstreet life, and their initiation ceremonies involved drunkenparties, justified by ideas of creative madness and poeticinspiration founded in the ecstatic worship of the wine godBacchus. Here Van Laer surrounds himself with occultparaphernalia, used to transform base matter into something ofvalue. Rejecting honourable self-representation, Van Laerwittily replaces the artist at work with a practising magicianand mockingly represents the respected form of the vanitas stilllife as a scene of sorcery. However, the skeletal claws on theright turn the joke into a nightmare.

ANDY WARHOL

Andy Warhol began his career as a commercial artist inPittsburgh before moving to New York. By the early 1960s hehad developed the idea of representing commodities as fine art,alongside images of celebrities. Avoiding the aura of handmadeoriginals, he used cheap source imagery such as pictures fromphotographic booths. The multiples that he produced bysilkscreen printing were sometimes customised with apainterly overlay. Warhol’s persona was projected throughglitzy, seemingly superficial imagery but his work also has adark side, exemplified in his Disaster Paintings of the electricchair, traffic accidents and suicides. He created self-portraitsthroughout his career; in this work the stilling of the subject isequated with suffocation and violent death.


Visual Art Look at Self-portrait 1638–39 by Pieter-Jacobsz vanLaer and imagine you had to describe it to someone whocouldn’t see it. Look closely and memorise everything you cansee. Turn away and describe it from memory. Turn back andsee how well you did.

Collage a striking design to create a cover for a small book.Incorporate personal imagery into your design. Fill the bookwith a series of paintings that evoke your interests in some way.Try developing your own personal iconography to express yourfeelings and identity. Experiment with bold, contrasting colourschemes and repetition.

Drama Look at the expressions these two artists wear in theirself-portraits and describe them. Imagine what the rest of theirbodies might be doing. What physical positions are associatedwith fear? Role-play gestures and voices for these characters.

Science and Technology Have someone take a photo ofyourself in the same place at the same time of day for a week.Arrange the photos in sequence and look at them. Whatchanges do you notice? Discuss.

HSIE Identify beliefs in different cultural and religious groupsassociated with life after death. Compare and contrast imageryand symbols.


• A self-portrait usually outlives its maker. The act of painting aself-portrait can be seen as being implicitly about death becauseit anticipates a future where it will exist without its maker.Sometimes a self-portrait comments ironically about the vanityand brevity of human life. When standing before a self-portraitthe viewer engages with the face, personality, feelings and othercharacteristics of someone who may have been dead forhundreds of years. In what ways do the self-portraits by Pieter-Jacobsz van Laer and Andy Warhol at once embody the artists’mortality and immortality?

• Look closely at Self-portrait 1638–39 by Pieter-Jacobsz vanLaer. Describe what kinds of objects this artist has chosen tosurround himself with. Do you recognise any of the symbolsyou see? Many of these objects; the skull, the pentagram andthe knife, are associated with the occult. Van Laer lived in a time when artistic skill was viewed with some suspicion and thought to be a sign that the artist was engaged in unholypractices to gain such powers, or had made a pact with thedevil.

Can you see any evidence of this idea or of the presence of thedevil in this painting? Why do you think this artist chose toinclude objects associated with the occult in his self-portrait?What is the link between alchemy and artistic practice?Research the history of the skull in art history fromRenaissance times through to the present.

Research the work of other artists such as Joseph Beuys andAnselm Kiefer who have worked with the theme of alchemy in their practice.

• Andy Warhol uses the repetitive nature of the image in theage of photographic reproduction to repeat his face like cheapphoto-booth prints. Find other examples of his work andanalyse the link between his practice and the consumer societyin which he lived.

Stage a photograph of yourself in an extreme act or gesture.Scan the photograph into your computer and manipulate the image. Experiment with repetition, cropping and scale.Change the colour, contrast, texture, shape and zoom in ondifferent sections. Print your results in different sizes. Use thesame size paper for all your explorations so that they can bebound together into a book or arranged on the classroom wallas an installation.


BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH


BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH Pieter-Jacobsz van LaerSelf-portrait 1638–39

oil on canvas 78.8 x 112.8 cmPrivate collection, New York


BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH Andy WarholSelf-portrait (strangulation) 1978

acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas 40.6 x 33 cmAnthony d’Offay, London © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney 2006

REMBRANDT HARMENSZ, VAN RIJN (STUDIO OF)

This painting is an original work from Rembrandt’s studio but was not painted by Rembrandt himself. The canvas comesfrom the same bolt as an accepted Rembrandt (the Flora in theMetropolitan Museum) and is painted on a kind of ground onlyused in his studio. The style is evocative of Rembrandt’s latemanner: the bulbous nose, shadowed eyes and working apparelare immediately familiar and the pose and gaze seem to refer to a mirror. A ‘self-portrait’ of one artist by another seems acontradiction in terms. Yet this ‘Rembrandt’ was most probablypainted by a pupil. Produced as part of the training process and most likely completed under Rembrandt’s supervision, itprovided a source of income and an unconventional means offurther promoting Rembrandt’s own image, authority and‘authenticity’ of style.

VINCENT VAN GOGH

Dutch-born painter Vincent van Gogh moved to Paris in 1886,and over the next two years produced more than 20 self-portraits. Impassioned by his experiments with impressionistpainting techniques, he said he wanted ‘to use colour arbitrarilyto express myself forcibly’. The staccato brushwork introducesa note of discordant energy into this self-portrait, which wasone of the last he painted in Paris. The artist’s face seems torecord his intense self-scrutiny. His self-portraits, likeRembrandt’s before him, could mask private concerns as oftenas they mirrored them. The year before his death Van Goghwrote from the asylum at St Remy: ‘It is difficult to knowyourself, but it isn’t easy to paint yourself either’.


Visual Art Look at the self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh.Notice the mosaic-like effect of the brush marks. Locate thecentre of these radiating brush marks in this painting. VanGogh’s paintings are very expressive and show his inneremotions. Make a collage using torn coloured paper to createan expressive self-portrait.

Rembrandt and Van Gogh made many portraits during theirlifetimes. Collect photos of yourself across time; as a baby, onthe first day of school etc. Make a triptych (three panels) usingphotography, drawing and painting to show yourself in thepast, present and future.

English Biographies are the literary equivalent of self-portraits.Write about a real life event that you have experienced.Include a description of your physical self to ‘paint a picture’ in words. Create a word bank of words and phrases to describethe sense of energy and movement in Van Gogh’s self-portrait.

Drama Research the letters that Van Gogh wrote to his brotherTheo. Make masks to represent each person and act out someof the exchanges. Find and watch films about Van Gogh’s lifesuch as ‘Vincent’ directed by Paul Cox (screening at theAGNSW on 22 & 26 March).


• Can one artist make a ‘self-portrait’ of another? This paintingwas made in Rembrandt’s studio, by one of Rembrandt’sstudents and has all the recognisable attributes of a Rembrandtself-portrait – his characteristic palette of earth colours, subtleeffects of light, texture, surface, his bulbous nose and hoodedeyes. These are all signs that had become accepted as denotinga ‘Rembrandt’.

Does this painting give the viewer an authentic encounter, aconnection, with Rembrandt? Give reasons for your answer.Discuss the relationship between the artwork, artist andaudience in this case.

• For Van Gogh self-portraiture was an obsession throughwhich he attempted to express his individual subjectivity, his inner psychological state. For this artist the portrait couldpenetrate the soul where the camera could not.

Look at his self-portrait and describe the way you think he isfeeling. Make a list of words which describe this state. Analysethe way Van Gogh has used colour, brushwork, compositionand the subject’s gaze to communicate this interior state to theviewer. Look particularly at the halo effect created by radiatingline and vibrating colour. What does this contribute to theoverall effect?

• ‘The best portraits, like Rembrandt for instance, are the kind of infinite disclosures of aspects of that person’s existencethrough time and that’s an ongoing thing and there’s noclosure to that’. Artist Lindy Lee, 2002

Brainstorm a list of words defining who you are and yourplace in the world. Make a box of objects that represent themost important features of your identity. Use materials,objects, even image of parts of your body in your assemblage.Think of ways to emphasise the most important aspects. Show your finished work to a partner and ask them to list words which come into their mind as they look at it.Compare these words with your original list.


SPECIALIST OF SELF-PORTRAITS


SPECIALIST OF SELF-PORTRAITS Rembrandt Harmensv, van Rijn (studio of)Rembrandt 1660s

oil on canvas 76.5 x 61.6 cmCollection National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Felton Bequest


SPECIALIST OF SELF-PORTRAITS Vincent van GoghSelf-portrait with felt hat 1888

oil on canvas 44 x 37.5 cmCollection Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam© Vincent van Gogh Foundation

GERHARD RICHTER

Gerhard Richter was born in Dresden in 1932 and first studiedart at the Kunstakademie in Dresden, where he learnt to copyrealistic and romantic styles. In 1959 he saw works by JacksonPollock at the Documenta exhibition in Kassal, and promptedby this experience, Richter moved permanently from EasternGermany just before the Berlin Wall was built. He continuedhis studies in Düsseldorf, where he met artist Joseph Beuys.Richter’s early paintings were like pop art in style, but with apolitical edge. His subject matter was often based on newspaperphotographs or surveillance images taken from a moving car,effectively blurring the distinction between realism andabstraction. In this self-portrait he returns to the romanticimagery of his youth – although abstracted, the artist is seen as if from a distance or ‘through a glass darkly’.

FRANCIS BACON

Born in Dublin, Francis Bacon arrived in London in 1928.Encouraged by the Australian artist Roy de Maistre, Bacon tookup painting and in 1933 one of his works was reproduced inHerbert Read’s book Art now. Most of Bacon’s mature paintingswere figure compositions, often including portraits of his closecircle of friends and colleagues, as well as many self-portraits.He is best known for dramatic fragmentation of the body andrapid gestures made with a broad brush or smeared with apiece of cloth, and occasionally even splashed directly from thecan. In this intense self-portrait, his characteristic painting stylestands in for his presence as strongly as the image itself. Theface functions as both a mask and an expression of interiorfeeling. Bacon said, ‘I want to try and get to the raw sensation.’


Visual Art View the self-portrait by Francis Bacon. Is this arealistic depiction of someone’s face? Explain your answer.Look at your reflections in different reflective surfaces such as the back of spoon, crumpled alfoil or a convex mirror. Try drawing what you see. Experiment with drawing ondifferent shiny surfaces.

English Both Francis Bacon and Gerhard Richter usednewspaper photographs as inspiration for their work. Collect photos from newspapers and create your own storiesbased on these images. Design a newspaper front page withyour story as the headline.

Science and Technology Gerhard Richter was interested in the blurred effect photographs can give you. Use a camera to experiment with capturing blurred and shaky images bymoving the camera slightly as you take the picture. Can youmake a painting of one of the resulting photographs?

HSIE These artists both made a lot of their work in the 1960s.Research the art, music, fashion and film of this period. Report your findings to the class.


Standing in front of a painted self-portrait the viewer occupiesthe same space once occupied by the artist. This circumstancecreates an intimate connection, across time and space, betweenthe two. The traces of paint, the distinctive brushwork whichechoes the movements of the artist’s hand, increase this senseof the artist’s physical presence. Look at the brushwork of thesetwo artists. What does it tell you of their different temperaments?Close your eyes and list words to describe the qualities of thepainted surface of each of these works. Would you recogniseother works by these artists by their signature brush marks?

A huge metaphysical shift came with the introduction of thephotograph. The camera has taught us to see and experiencethe world and ourselves, past and present, in a new ‘mediated’way. Even our memories, a core part of our identity, aremediated by photography. Think of the uncertainty you mayfeel over whether a memory is direct, or mediated through thephotographic archive of our experience which we all now have.

Gerhard Richter uses photographs as a starting point for his paintings. Self portrait 1996 looks like an out of focusphotograph. Investigate ways in which Richter’s work explores the relationship between photography and painting.

Discuss the contemporary role of painting. Do we stillrepresent, record and interpret our world through thismedium?

• Find a photo of Francis Bacon. Does he look anything like his painted self-portrait? Is it still recognisable? Experimentwith how far you can distort your own face before it becomesunrecognisable. Scan a photograph of yourself into the computerand drag and stretch it into new and interesting forms.

Oil paint is very well suited to represent the flesh of the face.Try to find colours on the computer that emulate skin tones.Try to give your computerised face fleshiness, weight and form.


THE BODY OF PAINT


THE BODY OF PAINT Gerhard RichterSelf-portrait 1996

oil on linen 51.1 x 46.4 cmGift of Jo Carole and Ronald S Lauder and Committee on Painting and Sculpture Funds, 1996Collection Museum of Modern Art, New York© Gerhard RichterDigital image © 2005 MOMA/Scala, Florence


THE BODY OF PAINT Francis Bacon Self-portrait 1971

oil on canvas 35.5 x 30.5cmCollection Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Musée national d’art moderne/Centre de création industrielle, gift of Louise and Michel Leiris, 1984© The Estate of Francis Bacon. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney 2006 © Photo CNAC/MNAM Dist RMN – © Phillipe Migeat

GERLACH FLICKE

This is believed to be the earliest surviving self-portrait in oils produced in England. Painted by the German émigré artistGerlach Flicke in a format often used for devotional paintings,it depicts Flicke and his friend Strangwish, an Englishgentleman privateer; both were in prison at the time. In accordance with humanist ideals of friendship, the two men are represented as alter egos: the neat, greying painterturns towards the younger man. Flicke holds a palette whileStrangwish plays the lute, an aristocratic instrument associatedwith love. The Latin inscription above Flicke’s head impliesthat he may have been facing the death sentence, stating thathe has produced his self-portrait from a mirror as a mementofor his ‘dear friends that they might have something by whichto remember him after his death’.

RICHARD HAMILTON

Richard Hamilton was a member of the Independent Groupassociated with the ICA in London from 1952. The group’spioneering work in installation, performance and new mediaanticipated British pop art and was a precursor for conceptualart. In 1965 Hamilton worked with Marcel Duchamp on thereconstruction of The large glass: the bride stripped bare byher bachelors even and in 1966 he organised the Duchampretrospective at the Tate Gallery. This self-portrait deconstructsthe mystique of painting and originality. Hamiltonphotographed himself from four slightly different angles ineach of the four panels, suggesting the multiple viewpoints of cubism. He then re-photographed these images throughsheets of glass onto which he painted marks, which he doublesin successive layering of real and reproduced gesture.


Visual Art Make a composite class portrait. Draw yourself in crayons or oil pastels. Cut each drawing into quarters andswap with others in class until everyone has sections from four different people including themselves. Glue the piecesonto paper the same size as the original to create a new portrait.Display the results and discuss.

Draw yourself from four different angles – front, back and both sides. Use mirrors to see these different sides. Display thisseries in different configurations. What movements did RichardHamilton use to apply paint? Re-enact them.

English Miniature self-portraits such as Gerlach Flicke withHenry Strangwish (or Strangways), 1554 by Gerlach Flicke were often painted to be carried around by a close friend orrelative. Use two small pieces of card taped together to form a hinged ‘diptych’ (two panel painting). Inside paint a portraitof yourself on one side and your best friend on the other. Write a poem about your friendship and use gold paint toinscribe the words onto the images. Decorate the outside withmore gold paint and shiny collage materials such as sequins.

HSIE Research the Protestant Reformation in Europe in the 1500s. Imagine you have been imprisoned in London as Gerlach Flicke was when he made his self-portrait. Describe the conditions and the people you might meet.

Science and Technology Use My Virtual Gallery(www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/ed/myvirtualgallery) to createyour own exhibition of portraits using the Gallery’s collection.

7–12 FRAMING QUESTIONS AND ART MAKING ACTIVITIES

• Such was the face of Gerlach Flicke when he was Painter inthe City of London. This he himself painted from a mirror forhis dear friends. That they might have something by which toremember him after his death.

This inscription is on Gerlach Flicke with Henry Strangwish (orStrangways) 1554 by Gerlach Flicke, the first self-portrait in oilsmade in England. What does it tell you about this artist’s reasonfor making this painting? How do the colours used and thediptych format link this work to religious iconography?

• Look at Four Self-portraits – 05.3.81 1990, by RichardHamilton and list ways in which it differs from other self-portraits in the exhibition. Why do you think he has chosen torepresent himself as multiple rather than singular? Does thisreflect the psychological reality of experience of being in theworld? Explain the process you think this artist used to createthis work. In what ways does this work relate to Cubism?

• Can people have more than one identity? Consider thedifferent roles you play in your life, eg with your friends, inclass, at work, in a museum. Devise a three minute play inwhich you ‘perform’ some of your different personas. Useprops, costume, gesture, voice and language to express thisvariety of identities.


SIGNIFICANT OTHERS


SIGNIFICANT OTHERS Gerlach FlickeGerlach Flicke with Henry Strangwish (or Strangways) 1554

oil on paper or vellum laid on oak 8.8 x 11.9 cmCollection National Portrait Gallery, London


SIGNIFICANT OTHERS Richard HamiltonFour Self-Portraits - 05.3.81 1990

oil and Humbrol enamel on Cibachrome on canvas four parts each 75.5 x 75.5 cmCollection Anthony d’Offay, London© Richard Hamilton. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney 2006

Leon Battista Alberti 1404–72Architect‘Narcissus, who saw his reflection in the water, and trembledat the beauty of his own face, was the real inventor ofpainting.’

Otto Dix 1864–1953 Artist

‘By reproducing the external form, one also captures the inner gestalt’.‘Self-portraits are confessions of an inner state, they alwayscome as a surprise to me. I look at them and think, why, that’snot what you look like at all. There is no objectivity there, onlyceaseless transformation; a human being has so many facets.The self-portrait is the best means of studying them.’

Francis Bacon 1909–92 Artist

‘I had no idea what to do next, so I thought, why not paintmyself?’ (1956) ... of his work ...‘Get rid of the cat and retain the smile’, in order to touch the retinal nerve.

Sigmund Freud 1856–1939 Father of psychonanlysis

‘... public self is a conditioned construct of the innerpsychological self.’

Susan Sontag 1933–2004 Writer and critic

‘The self is a project, something to be built.’

Roland Barthes 1915–80Literary critic and cultural theorist

‘... myself never coincides with my image; for it is the imagewhich is heavy, motionless, stubborn...and “myself” which is light, divided, dispersed.’

Fantin Latour 1836–1904Artist

‘The model is always ready and offers all sorts of advantages,he is exact, submissive and one knows him before painting!’

Oscar Wilde 1854–1900Writer

‘Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of theartist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely an accident, theoccasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is ratherthe painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself.’

Leonardo da Vinci 1452–1519Artist and inventor

‘The mirror, above all – the mirror is our teacher.’

Magritte 1898–1976Artist

‘... everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see’.

Allen Leepa b1919Artist

…. ‘We become ourselves – that is, we define ourselves –through particular action; we choose ourselves in each act of growth and development. Consciousness of our identity as a self is not simply an intellectual idea. We cannot simplyaccept an idea, such as that of Descartes, “I think, therefore, I am.” We are not simply an idea, but a complex variety of self-awarenesses that are revealed in the roles we play and the conceptualisations we make; in the self-images we hold;and in the symbolic projections we employ in our works ofart. The artist defines himself and his aesthetic perception byeach decision he makes in his work. Each colour, line, shape,and the relationships created with them, each perceptualintegration made at every moment in the development of hiswork becomes a part of his expressive self and his expressionin art. Self-awarenesses of sensations and sensitivities, asthey relate to each other through the work of art, increase anddefine aesthetic and creative identity’.

Bob Dylan b1941Musician

‘Picasso had fractured the art world and cracked it wide open.He was a revolutionary. I wanted to be like that’.

Francesco Clemente b1952Artist

‘I never paint a portrait from a photograph, because aphotograph doesn’t give enough information about what the person feels’.


QUOTES: SELF-PORTRAITURE

section 2 syllabus focusarchive.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/__data/page/8860/selfportrait_edkit2.pdf ·...

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