Research
Artist Research
Paula Rego
Paula Rego is a Portuguese visual artist, working mainly in pastels and oils, and is known for her paintings depicting 'stories'. Her work is inspired by her own experiences and she makes up stories about the people she knows, using this to inform her paintings. As a child, she would sit around the kitchen table, whilst the maids told tales - you can see this inspired her piece 'the maids'. Paula depicts scenes from her domestic life as well as basing her work on fairytales and animals – much of this is inspired from her childhood. I admire her ability to create a narrative in her paintings. Her figurative paintings are quite raw, they all have a childlike feel to them, whilst being quite dark and eerie in a way. Her paintings make me feel as though I am peeking into someone's life, in these two paintings; 'the family' and 'the maids' for example, someone is looking directly at me, making me feel like I have been caught spying. Paula Rego's narrative paintings are a major influence in my self-negotiated project 'Self Portraits'. I want to create a narrative in my self-portrait paintings and tell a story through actions and facial expressions.
'The Family'
This painting titled 'The Family' was inspired by Paula's own experiences of caring for her late husband, who suffered from multiple sclerosis. The painting could be interpreted in many ways; at first glance, the mother and daughter appear to be helping the dad, however, when I looked closer it seems they may actually be hurting him.
'The maids'
There is a similar theme in this painting, at first glance, it appears the maids are helping, however when i looked closer it is quite dark and looks as though they are perhaps trying to hurt the people in the painting. I listened to a podcast in which Paula spoke about how she intends the maids to look murderous and that they murder the mistress.
Suzon Lagarde
'Self portrait on a train'
Self Portraits emerged around the beginning of the 15th century. Suzon shows how much the self-portrait has evolved over the years through influences, such as technology, in this self-portrait of herself reflected in her phone. For my final piece, I am creating a drawing of a self-portrait taken by a polaroid camera, this was inspired partly by suzon lagardes self-portrait on a train. I will be combing both the historical contemporary by taking a 'selfie' using an old-fashioned Polaroid camera.
This painting inspired a digital painting I created for my self-negotiated project. Suzons’ raw self-portrait shows her disability in an expressive and emotional way. I wanted to paint something that showed my sensor on my arm, which I use to check my blood glucose.
Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe is an American photographer best known for his black and white photographs of nudes, still life, and self-portraits. I am a big fan of Robert Mapplethorpe's photography, particularly his self-portraits. This self-portrait of his from 1988 is quite surreal in the way he has blackened out the background making it look as though his head and hand are floating. At the time he made this portrait he was battling AIDs, which suggests the skull represents him looking death in the face. The way his head is slightly out of focus could also be a representation of death, showing his slowly fading away. His work is quite surreal and I found him very inspirational for the photography part of my studio work. I will be taking self-portraits and photoshopping them into surreal scenes. Robert Mapplethorpe also found satisfaction in taking polaroid photographs and had his first solo exhibition 'polaroids' at the light gallery in New York city in 1973.
Vivian Maier
Vivian Maier was an incredible street photographer, working as a nanny in America. I particularly love her series of self-portraits. Vivian’s self-portrait photos are mainly reflections, such as a shadow on the grass or her reflection in a shop window. They are fascinating in how she achieves these different perspectives of a self-portrait. Her photography is very raw, documenting the every day on the streets of New York.
Cristina Troufa
Cristina Troufa is a self-portrait painter who uses herself as the muse in her work. She uses the medium acrylic on untreated surfaces, which is typical of post-impressionists. Her work is inspired by her spirituality, religious beliefs and how she feels in the society she is living in. I really like her use of empty space and geometric shapes, especially how the clothing on her figures is usually the same colour as the background. Cristina has inspired my self-negotiated project in the way I am also using myself as the main subject in all of my work. Cristina creates a doppelganger effect in which she is repeated multiple times in a painting, creating this great narrative. I love her painting style, the hints of green and purple add great depth to her work.
Afarin Sajedi
Afarin Sajedi’s surreal portraits offer a glimpse into the human soul with her emotional portraits of women, featuring surprising objects and animals, such as fish and cutlery. Her portraits show women suffering and in pain and can be quite uncomfortable to look at, yet beautiful. Her style of work is very much surrealism and her approach to this reminds me of the 'cadavres exquis' (the exquisite Corpse). The way she paints familiar objects into unfamiliar places reminds me of Freud's description of the 'uncanny'. This painting above by Afarin is a great example of this where she has stook fish all over the woman's face, it makes you feel very uncomfortable.
Andy Warhol
I love Andy Warhols series of self -portraits and polaroids. Warhol would go to parties every week and take quick photos using his polaroid camera of famous celebrities. some examples include Liza Minelli and Jean-Michel Basquiat. He would document his life of glamour and style with these little photos, with over 60 now on display in an exhibit. These Polaroids are quite modern in a way, the beginning of the modern day 'selfie'. Warhol has inspired my final piece, where I will take inspiration from all of my studio work to create a polaroid self portrait. It will be an interactive exhibit where the audience is invited to take their own polaroid selfie.
Frida Kahlo
The Mexican self portrait surrealist painter, Frida Kahlo has been a great inspiration of mine whilst working on my self portrait project. Her self portraits are very raw, each one telling a story or representing emotion or pain, which Frida has experienced in her lifetime. A particular favourite of mine is 'the two frida's'. This depicts two versions of herself, one is the frida her husband loved and cared for with her heart in tact. The other frida represents the Frida her husband betrayed and cheated on, with her heart open and exposed. The broken collumn is another great surrealist piece of work by Frida. She is shown with a broken collumn that replaces her spine and pins all over her body. It appears to represent pain an dperhaps her time spent in hospitals. Frida underwent 30 operations in her lifetime and suffered from polio as a child. The pain she has endured throughoout her life is represneted throughout all of her artwork.
'The Two Fridas'
'The Broken Collumn'
Julia Las
Julia's miniature paintings inspired my final exhibition piece. I love how she manages to create so mcuh detial in these tiny watercolour paintings. She paints anything from portraits and wildlife, to everyday objects and recreations of famous artwork. Even though somer of her paintings are smaller than a one pence piece, they are truly breathtaking and I love the effect of miniature art.
Further Research
Sigmund Freud - 'The Uncanny'.
“Uncanny is in reality nothing new or alien, but something which is familiar and old-established in the mind and which has become alienated from it only through the process of repression.”
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I recently read Freud's explanation of the uncanny and found his exploration into the 'doppelganger interesting. He talks about how the double can be found in mirrors, guardian spirits, and shadows, and how it becomes the uncanny harbinger of death. The uncanny is a popular theme in a lot of surrealist art, including some of the artists I have been researching, including; Frida Kahlo, Afarin Sajedi, and Cristina Troufa. The doppelganger or 'double' is also a common theme in my work for my self negotiated project
Gallery Visits
Eye to I: Self Portraits from the National Portrait Gallery
I recently visited this online exhibition from the Boca Raton Museum of art. The exhibition explores how American artists have represented themselves through painting, drawing, photography, and video since the beginning of the 20th century. Some of the self-portraits in the exhibition are very real and raw, however, some are quite dramatic, perhaps portraying alter egos.
This painting by Thomas Benton was one of my favourites in the exhibition. The painting shows the artist with his wife on a beach. In reality, Thomas is small (only 5'4), however, he has portrayed himself towering over everyone and everything in the scene. I love the style of the painting; it is very theatrical. The way he has centered himself in the painting, with his head in the clouds, and his body sculpted perfectly like a bronzed god, emphasizes the theatrical and fantasy nature of his style.
Here are a few more of my favourite self-portraits from the exhibition.
A Deep Dive into the Portrait of Ocean Conservationist Julie Packard
I visited this online exhibition showing the painting of Julie Packard, commissioned by artist Hope Gangloff. The painting shows Julie posing in front of the Monterey Bay Aquariums' pacific kelp forest and is a huge 212 by 141cm in size. The artist is known for creating large, colourful portraits. Hope spent time making sketches of Julie and the underwater aquarium exhibits before creating the painting. The aquariums aim with the exhibit was to recreate what it felt like to dive into Monterey bay and Hope has captured this beautifully. The amount of detail that has gone into this painting is incredible and the use of colour is just beautiful. You could just get lost in the forest of plants and fish. I love the colour palette of oranges and blue she has chosen, they are both complementary colours and just create a phenomenal effect. I love the sunlight shining and reflecting through the surface of the water, it really lightens up the whole painting. Even though there is a lot going on in the painting and everything is a similar colour, she still manages to make Julie stand out as her icy blue hair contrasts the deeper blue water. If you look closely at the face, you can see Hope has painted the skin tones using shades of blue and orange, which compliments the painting as a whole. She has also given Julie such a lovely soft expression. After visiting this online exhibit Hope Gangloff is definitely a new favourite artist of mine.
References
Podcats: Paula Rego – desert island discs: archive 1996-2000.
https://www.saatchigallery.com/artist/paula_rego
http://www.mapplethorpe.org/biography/
https://theartyteacher.com/cristina-troufa-an-inspiration-to-art-students/
https://www.nailedmagazine.com/features/artist-feature-cristina-troufa
https://www.afarinsajedi.com/about
https://www.photographize.co/articles/afarinsajedi/
Sigmund Freud – The uncanny