Between: self portrait

Showing posts with label self portrait. Show all posts

Thursday, 3 February 2022

Artlyst: Van Gogh. Self-Portraits - The Infinite And The Ordinary

My latest review for Artlyst is of Van Gogh. Self-Portraits at the Courtauld Gallery:

'In a letter to his brother Theo, Vincent Van Gogh wrote, ‘I’d like to paint men or women with that je ne sais quoi of the eternal, of which the halo used to be the symbol, and which we try to achieve through the radiance itself, through the vibrancy of our colourations.’

Van Gogh’s self-portraits have often been (mis)interpreted in terms of his troubled life story instead of paying attention to what he says about them in his letters. Van Gogh. Self-Portraits reconsider this aspect of his work and place his self-representation in context to reveal the role it plays in his oeuvre. Amazingly, this is the first time that the entire span of Van Gogh’s self-portraiture has been explored in an exhibition; all the way from his early Self-Portrait with a Dark Felt Hat, created in 1886 during his formative period in Paris, to Self-Portrait with a Palette, painted at the asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in September 1889, one of his last self-portraits before his death in 1890. What we find is the radiance of the eternal in the vibrancy of colour.'

For more on Van Gogh see my Artlyst piece Van Gogh’s Religious Journey Around London.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -

Articles -

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The Innocence Mission - You Chase The Light.

Saturday, 17 June 2017

Exhibitions update: Image and identity

I've recently enjoyed seeing two exhibition about image and identity:

Grayson Perry: The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!: This summer Grayson Perry, one of the most astute commentators on contemporary society and culture, presents a major exhibition of new work at the Serpentine Galleries. The works touch on many themes including popularity and art, masculinity and the current cultural landscape.

Perry’s abiding interest in his audience informs his choice of universally human subjects. Working in a variety of traditional media such as ceramics, cast iron, bronze, printmaking and tapestry, Perry is best known for his ability to combine delicately crafted objects with scenes of contemporary life. His subject matter is drawn from his own childhood and life as a transvestite, as well as wider social issues ranging from class and politics to sex and religion.

The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever!, tackles one of Perry’s central concerns: how contemporary art can best address a diverse cross section of society. Perry said: “I am in the communication business and I want to communicate to as wide an audience as possible. Nothing pleases me more than meeting someone at one of my exhibitions from what museum people call ‘a non-traditional background.’ The new works I am making all have ideas about popularity hovering around them. What kind of art do people like? What subjects? Why do people like going to art galleries these days? What is the relationship of traditional art to social media?”

A Channel 4 documentary Grayson Perry: Divided Britain followed Perry as he created a new work for the show: his attempt to capture the thoughts of a divided country a year after the EU referendum. Harnessing social media, Perry invited the British public to contribute ideas, images and phrases to cover the surface of two enormous new pots: one for the Brexiteers and one for the Remainers. He also visited the most pro-Brexit and pro-Remain parts of the country for the programme, which is available to watch on All4.

Saatchi Gallery and Huawei have teamed up to present From Selfie to Self-Expression. This is the world’s first exhibition exploring the history of the selfie from the old masters to the present day, and celebrates the truly creative potential of a form of expression often derided for its inanity.

The show also highlights the emerging role of the mobile phone as an artistic medium for self-expression by commissioning ten exciting young British photographers to create new works using Huawei’s newest breakthrough dual lens smartphones co-engineered with Leica.

I'll also be going to see Art Out of the Bloodlands: A Century of Polish Artists in Britain at the Ben Uri Gallery from 28 June - 17 September 2017. This exhibition focuses on the contribution made by the largest migrant community to 20th/21st Century British Art, this exhibition highlights the work of Polish artists who have worked and continue to work in Britain. Featured artists include: Jankel Adler, Janina Baranowska, Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Stanislaw Frenkiel, Feliks Topolski and Alfred Wolmark, complemented by contemporary practitioners working in London now. All but a handful of the featured works have been created in England – the new homeland - yet many retain symbols of Polish national identity, from Catholicism and the cavalry, to the dark forests and traditional embroidery.

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Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here.

Friday, 30 August 2013

Self-portraits: Stranger

Flowers East was one of the first galleries to open in London's East End, in a former laundry/fur storage facility in Hackney. I was a regular visitor for shows that included work by John Bellany, Nicola Hicks, Peter Howson and John Keane.

In 2002 the gallery moved from Hackney into a 12,000 sq foot industrial space in Shoreditch, East London and, while I've been to shows at the Kingsland Road location, I've not been such a regular visitor. So I enjoyed the opportunity to visit the Gallery this morning with Mal Grosch to see the current exhibition of self portraits by Gallery artists.

Interestingly, many of the artists that were showing with the Gallery in the 1980s are still with them, suggesting both that they have been adept at identifying artists with significant potential and at fostering positive ongoing relationships with such artists. There are, of course, newer artists also in the mix but the jury is still out as to whether these will gain a similar profile to the earlier group that I remember seeing from the '80s onwards.

The exhibition aims to illuminate the relevance of self-portraiture, and its aesthetic value through each individual’s varied approach to self-representation. Historically, the self-portrait was often used as a reference or educational tool; an honest depiction of an artist that reflected the environment in which he or she existed. It enabled the artist to hone their skills, studying their own form as a free and constant model. Artists such as Rembrandt used the self-portrait as a cathartic tool to chronicle their changing physicality and to develop a greater anatomical understanding. It was a method to explore emotive, even distorted facial expressions, typically out of bounds within a commissioned work.

The exhibition's title, 'Stranger,' suggests a rather more conflicted approach to self-portraiture from these artists with work that conceals as well as reveals and which deals in image and irony as well as realism.

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Duke Special - Portrait.

Thursday, 1 March 2012

Self Portraits

Tate Modern, 2012

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Love - Andmoreagain.