Eye to I: Self Portraits from 1900 to Today

The Artist’s Sense of Self

Eye to I: Self-Portraits from 1900 to Today

SELF-PORTRAITS IN THE DIGITAL AGE are ubiquitous and instantaneous. Selfie-takers freeze a moment in time, often one that attempts to show their desired public persona. The artist self-portrait takes longer to create, yet similarly tries to boil down the artist’s “self” to a single image.

In a way, artists' self-portraits are not that different from selfies. They capture a moment, full of both public and private messages. Eye to I: Self-Portraits from 1900 to Today collects those artist selfies in a variety of mediums: prints, photographs, paintings, and drawings selected from the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s vast collection.

The exhibition examines how American artists have chosen to portray themselves since the beginning of the last century. “Individuals featured in Eye to I have approached self-portraiture at various points in history, under unique circumstances, and using different tools, but their representations—especially when seen together—all raise important questions about self-perception and selfreflection,” says Brandon Brame Fortune, chief curator emeritus at Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. “Some artists reveal intimate details of their inner lives through self-portraiture, while others use the genre to obfuscate their private selves or invent alter egos.”

Featured in Eye to I are self-portraits by prominent figures in the history of

Elaine de Kooning, Elaine de Kooning Self-Portrait, 1946, oil on Masonite, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, courtesy Elaine de Kooning Trust.

Left: Roger Shimomura, Shimomura Crossing the Delaware , 2010, acrylic on canvas, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Gift of Raymond L. Ocampo Jr., Sandra Oleksy Ocampo, and Robert P. Ocampo, © 2010, Roger Shimomura

Below: María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Untitled from the series When I am not Here, Estoy alla, 1996, dye diffusion transfer print, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Julia P. and Horacio Herzberg, © María M. Campos-Pons

American visual art, including Robert Arneson, Alexander Calder, Jasper Johns, Allan Kaprow, Deborah Kass, Elaine de Kooning, Jacob Lawrence, Louise Nevelson, Irving Penn, Robert Rauschenberg, Fritz Scholder, Roger Shimomura, Edward Steichen, and many more.

Like the selfie, artist self-portraits are a way to present a personal view of self in a broader social context. Sometimes abstract, sometimes realistic, some featured with representative objects or in highly specific scenarios, each artist manipulates their sense of self for public viewing. Unlike the selfie, the artist self-portrait requires forethought and planning. The essence of these portraits, whether public image or private moment, is rarely accidental.

Take for example Fritz Scholder’s 2003 Self Portrait with Grey Cat. Scholder was at the end of his life, suffering from diabetes. The dark canvas features tubes running from an oxygen tank, and a grey cat, likely referencing the Egyptian feline goddess Bastet, a feminine figure who protected the home from evil spirits and disease. The Smithsonian notes that Scholder was influenced by Francis Bacon, and this piece nods to Bacon’s dark canvasses and melting faces. No less personal is Shimomura Crossing the Delaware, by Roger Shimomura, where identity is presented through historical and cultural references. Created in the Japanese woodblock style, Shimomura is featured in the pose of George Washington in a re-envisioning of Emanuel Leutze’s famed 1851 Washington Crossing the Delaware. Instead of Continental soldiers, the boat is filled with Japanese samurai, and the scene is San Francisco Bay. Shimomura was born in the United States, and had struggled throughout his life with American xenophobia directed at his Japanese identity. Along with his family, he was imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp during World War II.

Elaine de Kooning’s self-portrait depicts her in her studio, although she is holding a sketchbook rather than painting materials (her medium of choice), and surrounded by still life objects that reflect her training with famous teacher and husband Willem de Kooning. Their relationship was tumultuous; as Elaine de Kooning recalled, “Everything was a matter of tension between objects or edges and space.”

Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons expands the narrative structure of selfportrait in Untitled from the series When I am not Here, Estoy alla, 1996. In it, she composites pieces of her Afro-Cuban identity into a single photographic image. As she noted in an article for a gallery that represents her work, “The body is a metaphor, this is not a self-portrait. The personal is a vehicle to narrate a more complex story.”

ON VIEW

EYE TO I: SELF PORTRAITS FROM 1900 TO TODAY

June 12-September 12

The exhibition has been organized by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., and supported in part by Mr. and Mrs. Michael H. Podell.