It’s a longstanding belief that self-portraiture brings us into dialogue with the artist’s soul. Playful, narcissistic or brave, self-portraits are nebulous artistic expressions in historical and contemporary art. They can present a spectrum of emotional signifiers that an artist may or may not want to portray. Success, indulgence, self-mockery, self-aggrandisement, despair, loneliness or ego. From Cindy Sherman’s mysterious film noir film stills to Marc Quinn’s head cast in blood, we take a look at some of the most iconic self portraits in Contemporary art.
Cindy Sherman from “Untitled Film Stills” Image from tate.org.uk
“untitled film still” by Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman’s self portraits fragment and disperse into multitudinous personae in her “ Untitled Film Stills series”. The body of 69 black and white photographs , created between 1977 and 1980, capture a wig-clad Sherman in various vintage guises set against a cinematic backdrop. The freeze-frames are momentary reflections of an often exposed Sherman engaging with somebody out of shot.
Ana Mendieta “Portrait with Blood” Image from mutualart.com
“portrait with blood” by Ana Mendieta
The inimitable Ana Mendieta has been mythologised for her personal story and “Self-Portraits with Blood”. They are a series of nine 35mm colour slides that show Mendieta deformed by make-up and smothered by stretched and torn pantyhose. In the series entitled “Untitled (Glass on Body Imprints)”, Mendieta becomes even more corpse-like by crushing her face against a pane of glass.
Marc Quinn “Self” Image from odditiesbizarre.com
“Self” by Marc Quinn
Artist Marc Quinn casts his sculpture “Self” in frozen silicone to create a mould of his own head that is then filled with his own blood. The sculpture embodies the theme of dependency and is evocative of a time when Quinn was an alcoholic. It draws on a humanity and survival which is mirrored by the frozen sculpture’s dependency on electricity. An iteration of the sculpture is made every five years, where each individual portrait captures the passing of time and the artist’s “changing self” .
Frida Kahlo “The Two Fridas” Image from wikiart.org
“The Two Fridas” by Frida Kahlo
Unrivalled and instantly memorable, Frida Kahlo’s “The Two Frida’s” is arguably one of the most iconic of all the works on this list. Kahlo was one of a kind in her era: a renegade loner who pursued her life as an artist, while many other women gave up their ambitions for marriage. Her self-portraits show a disregard for both “beauty norms” and social convention that has established her as a progressive voice in the representation of identity, disability and the repression of women in contemporary art.
Francesca Woodman “From Polka Dot Series, Providence, Rhode Island” Image from timelightbox.tumblr.com
“From Polka Dot Series, Providence, Rhode Island” by Francesca Woodman
Francesca Woodman’s opus is a stirring study of self-portraiture and the human body in space. Her exploration of female subjectivity, literature and performance also represent the sea change in American photography that occurred in the late Seventies. Woodman tragically committed suicide in 1981 at the age of 22, and while an unavoidable event in her chronology, her remarkable output for such a young artist shows an astonishing awareness of self in relation to her immediate surroundings and wider cultural landscape.