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Modern self-portraits take over the Uffizi Express Yourself !
[caitlin dwyer]
When he died in 1675, Cardinal Leopoldo de’ Medici bequeathed 80 Italian self-portraits to his nephew Cosimo III. These paintings, displayed in the Uffizi Gallery, became the first museum exhibition consiting solely of self-portraits, and created an enduring interest for Florence in the way artists view themselves. The Uffizi’s new exhibition, Moi! Autoritratti, running every Tuesday through Sunday through January 9, 2005, offers a continuing look at this tradition of self-portraiture. Twentieth-century artists from around the world, including well-known names ranging from Warhol to Chagall to Mondrian to Kathe Kollwitz, paint, sculpt, and construct their diverse visions of themselves through the twelve rooms of Moi!.
The exhibit, which showed last spring at the Louvre in Paris under curator and art historian Pascal Bonafoux, questions the elusive art of self-reflection. Three mirrors set up in the entryway place the viewer immediately in the position of the artist – trying to make sense of one’s own reflection. After this suggestion of a creator-viewer comraderie, the exhibit provides a beautiful opening statue, a recent creation by Nicolas Alquin with roots in September 11 that expands the idea of being watched by oneself. Indeed, throughout the exhibit the artists’ gazes are nearly tangible, as if they sit curiously in the museum watching us from the walls.
Sometimes they seem self-aware, as keen to observe the audience as we are to observe them; sometimes they merely watch themselves, as in Jan Krizik’s Narcicuss, where the artist appears fascinated by his own reflection in a broken mirror.
Each room adopts a loose theme that ties the portraits together. Some question the role of the artist in society, especially in regards to war, government, or human atrocity. Others examine the masks and metamorphoses worn by artists. By depicting himself literally wearing a mask in his Self’Portrait with Mask, Mica Popovic questions the ability of the artist to penetrate his own facade and reveal an inner life obscured by paint. Other artists create masks through the screen of other figures – a minotaur, a prophet, a member of the opposite sex, a mythological figure, a symbol of government – in hopes that these associations will round out our understanding of the person behind. In one room, two or more portraits by the same artist – often wildly diverse in style and tone – show how views of oneself can change over time. ome of the most interesting portraits are hardly portraits at all, in the traditional sense. Fernando Botero painted a still life of a teapot, guitar, oranges, and a newspaper as his portrait; French artist Arman glued objects such as a ping-pong paddle and ski goggles into a 3-D collage; Tony Cragg‘s installation of plastic mosaic and bicycle pops out in the middle of one room. Other artists poke fun at the narcissicism of self-portraiture; Dada master Marcel Duchamp simply signed his name and the date.
From beginning to end, Moi! Autoritratti offers a fascinating glimpse into various modes of self-expression. In the century of war, psychoanalysis, and social change, artists struggled to express themselves by innovative means; the Uffizi’s new exhibit provides a tantalizing glimpse into facets of the twentieth-century consciousness. Open Tuesday-Sunday 8:15-6:50.
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http://www.moi-autoritrattidelxxsecolo.it/