How do artists explore their identities through self-portraits?
Self-portraits are unique because a single individual acts as both the artist and the subject. In creating a self-portrait, artists have opportunity to delve into their own sense of personal identity.
Introduction
Mia’s collection includes many different examples of portraits—an artistic representation of a person made in the form of a painting, drawing, photograph, or sculpture. Whether a portrait is realistic or not, the artist is trying to capture a human likeness. Self-portraits are unique because a single person acts as both the artist and the subject. In creating a self-portrait, artists have an opportunity to delve into their own sense of identity. In addition to their physical traits or characteristics, artists can express aspects of themselves that may be invisible to other people. Artists can choose different mediums, techniques, and compositions depending on what they are trying to express about themselves.
Self-portraits can reveal a lot about the artists who make them. In this section, we look at the work of two artists—Morimura Yasumasa and Pushpamala N.—who both create self-portraits by inserting themselves into different contexts and scenarios, taking on different personae. By casting themselves in different roles and guises, they explore the breadth and fluidity of personal identity.
Morimura Yasumasa
Morimura Yasumasa is a conceptual photographer who has described his own practice as “wearing paintings” and “wearing Western art history.” Born in Osaka, Japan, in 1951, he attributes his interest in working primarily with Western art images to his art education in post-World War II Japan, when the country embraced many Western cultural influences. He made his first art-historical self-portrait in 1985 by casting himself as Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh; he would continue to pose as many famous figures throughout his career, including Che Guevara, the Mona Lisa, Rembrandt, and Marilyn Monroe. He begins by researching an artwork and its artist, and then uses makeup, costumes, staging, props, and digital manipulation to re-create the iconic self-portraits in great detail, but he often replaces certain props or costumes to give the work a modern twist or reference his own Japanese identity and culture.
Sally Larsen / CC BY-SA.
His An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo (Hand-Shaped Earring) is part of a series in which he re-creates and places himself into self-portraits by Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907–1954). This one is based on her Self Portrait, Dedicated to Dr Eloesser. The two works are strikingly similar, but Morimura’s photograph contains a few differences: he uses a Louis Vuitton wrap as his shawl and a tiara of artificial blossoms to adorn his head.
Morimura’s work explores the concepts of identity—his own identity as an artist and Japanese man and the identities of the figures he inhabits. The majority of his practice focuses on characters from Western art history, especially women. By placing himself into the roles of different figures, he the blurs the lines among cultural, political, national, racial, ethnic, and gender identities. In response to the sexual ambiguity of his artworks, Morimura says, “My idea of beauty is something that stirs up a commotion. It provokes a variety of thoughts. . . . It naturally makes people uneasy or nervous because they don’t get an explanation using words they are familiar with. . . . In Japanese we have a phrase to describe something weird and hard to pin down, as ‘the thing one can’t determine if it belongs to the ocean or to the mountain.’ That’s me.”
Pushpamala N.
Pushpamala N. is a video-performance artist, photographer, sculptor, writer, and curator who lives and works in Bangalore, India. Born in 1956, she began her art career as a sculptor, and in the mid-1990s she began working in photography and video. Fascinated by literature, theater, silent film, Indian cinema, and early photography, she creates series of photographs that tell stories—what she refers to as photo-novellas or photo-romances—that often take their cues from cinematic and literary genres including thrillers and romance. Much of her work shows Pushpamala in different iconic roles that reference well-known historical and contemporary figures—like Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity, and actresses from Indian films.
© 2011 Pushpamala N.
To create these tableaux, she conducts months or even years of research before she and her technical team begin production of costumes, props, and sets. Her interest in Indian photography and cinema stems from the fact that these media were introduced to India very soon after their invention and therefore carry less of what she calls an “oppressive colonial burden” than, for example, oil painting, which was introduced to India by way of Western-style art academies.
Pushpamala has said that performance art is a self-revealing art form. She says, “I want to enter the skin of another person as a very liberating act. I’m enjoying myself becoming the other . . . but I’m still myself.” She elaborates, “When I put on a costume and masquerade it’s as if I’m disguising myself. But I think by disguising myself I also reveal myself.”
Teaching and Learning Strategies
Mia’s collection features many examples of portraits and self-portraits that you can share with your students. Or, look for artworks by Morimura Yasumasa and Pushpamala N. outside Mia’s collection. A great way to kick off any activity would be to facilitate some “slow looking” with your students. Slow looking is the practice of taking lots of time to look closely at a work of art in order to make discoveries and develop a deeper understanding about it.
- Start a slow-looking session for students to look silently and independently at the artwork. Encourage them to take a close and prolonged look on their own. You can find a variety of slow-looking exercises in Shari Tishman’s book “Slow Looking: The Art and Practice of Learning through Observation.”
- Next, ask students what they notice in the artwork. You can use the Visual Thinking Strategies method, but you may need to adapt it slightly for portraits or self-portraits.
- As you encourage students to describe what they see in the artwork, be aware of any unfounded comments or assumptions about the depicted figure based on its identity. This article “The Societal Frame: A Tool to Address Racism in the Galleries,” by Michelle Jordan Antonisse, provides guidance for educators on how to address racist and biased comments that may come up in student discussion about art.
Have students make their own self-portraits.
- Begin by leading students through a guided brainstorming process to explore their own identity and what they’d like to express in their self-portrait:
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- What is essential to your sense of personal identity? How do you want to portray yourself? What do you want people to know about you? How will you communicate this information visually in your artwork? What elements, details, and symbolism will you use in your self-portrait? Will your self-portrait be realistic, or more abstract? Are you inspired by the self-portraits by any other artists?
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- Have students select their artistic medium of choice. They can create self-portraits by drawing, painting, sculpting them, making collages, photography, and more. If you are encouraging students to draw inspiration from an existing artwork, be sure to incorporate a research component so students learn more about the artist, the themes, and historical context of the artwork as well as the artistic techniques.
- Find a way for the students to share their self-portraits—in front of their classmates, presentation-style and/or in your classroom or hallway, exhibition-style. Students can give presentations about their artwork and discuss their process in making their self-portraits. You can incorporate time for individual and group reflection between students. For a supportive guide on how to facilitate healthy, constructive critique and feedback between students, check out Liz Lerman’s “Critical Response Process.”.
- Begin by leading students through a guided brainstorming process to explore their own identity and what they’d like to express in their self-portrait: