Sheds new light on the long history of self-portraiture with fresh interpretations of famous examples and new works, ideas, and anecdotes This broad cultural history of self-portraiture brilliantly maps the history of the genre, from the earliest myths of Narcissus and the Christian tradition of “bearing witness” to the prolific self-image-making of today’s contemporary artists. Focusing on a perennially popular subject, the book tells the vivid history of works that offer insights into artists’ personal, psychological, and creative worlds. Topics include the importance of the medieval mirror craze in early self-portraiture; the confessional self-portraits of Titian and Michelangelo; the mystique of the artist’s studio, from Vermeer to Velázquez; the role of biography and geography for serial self-portraitists such as Courbet and Van Gogh; the multiple selves of modern and contemporary artists such as Cahun and Sherman; and recent developments in the era of globalization. Comprehensive and beautifully illustrated, the book features the work of a wide range of artists including Beckmann, Caravaggio, Dürer, Gentileschi, Ghiberti, Giotto, Goya, Kahlo, Kauffman, Magritte, Mantegna, Picasso, Poussin, Raphael, Rembrandt and Van Eyck. The full range of the subject is explored, including comic and caricature self-portraits, “invented” or imaginary self-portraits, and important collections of self-portraiture such as that of the Medici.
A work of remarkable depth, scope and power, this is a book for anyone who has ever wondered about the strange dichotomy between the innermost self and the self we choose to present for posterity -- our face to the world.
Self-Portrait tells the artist's story in her own words, drawn from early journal entries as well as memory, of her childhood in India and her days as a art student at London's Slade School of Fine Art; of her intense decades-long ...
This visually stunning volume offers perceptive examinations of several renowned German and Austrian Expressionist artists who redefined modern self-portraiture.
Exhibition "The Self-Portrait: a Modern View" organised by Artsite Gallery, Bath International Festival, 1987.
Exploring what motivates artists to paint or photograph themselves, the author selects over 100 self-portraits from the National Portrait Gallery to examine the style, techniques and personalities of the sitters,...
Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize “Fabulously written, this spellbinding debut novel is a real page-turner.
This richly illustrated book features an introduction by the National Portrait Gallery's chief curator and nearly 150 insightful entries on key self-portraits in the museum's collection.
During a 90-minute flight, a woman looks back on an affair with a composer in a cerebral, feminist, Bernhardian debut.
Recreating the glamour of Hollywood in the 1940s, the actress tells of the roles she played, the rich and famous men who have pursued her, the failure of her first marriage, and her struggle against mental illness
An ambitious exploration of the self-portrait from its inception in the late fifteenth century to the end of the twentieth, this ground-breaking book moves beyond the constraints of art history....