Self-Portraits

The self as a subject is one of the most fascinating and fruitful of artistic enterprises. From the 15th century to today, this collection brings together some of the best examples of self-portraiture to explore the genre's evolution over the centuries as well as the enduring questions of selfhood and self-representation that have besieged human experience for centuries before social media and the selfie.

Is a self-portrait of an artist a medium of reflection? Or is it merely a black void, the "false mirror", as the Surrealist René Magritte entitled his 1928 painting of an eye? How much does it impart about contemporary notions of beauty, power, and status? From Albrecht Dürer to Egon Schiele, Fra Filippo Lippi to Frida Kahlo, this far-reaching collection explores the numerous ways in which artists have taken themselves as subjects, the variety of ingenious methods and perspectives they have used, and the intriguing questions they raise.

Artists in the Focus of Their Own Eyes
Master Gerlachus - Moses and the Burning Bush
Fra Filippo Lippi - Coronation of the Virgin
Albrecht Dürer - Self-Portrait in a Fur Coat
Giorgione - Self-Portrait as David
Parmigianino - Self-Portrait in Convex Mirror
Michelangelo - Self-Portrait on the Skin of St Bartholomew
Caravaggio - David with the Head of Goliath
Peter Paul Rubens - The Honeysuckle Bower
Salvator Rosa - Philosophy
Nicolas Poussin - Self-Portrait)
David Bailly - Self-Portrait with Vanity Symbols
Diego Velázquez - Velázquez and the Royal Family (Las Meninas)
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn - Self-Portrait as Zeuxis
Rosalba Carriera - Self-Portrait with a Portrait of Her Sister Giovanna
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin - Self-Portrait with Eye-Shade
Francisco de Goya - Self-Portrait in the Workshop
Vincent van Gogh - Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear
Edvard Munch - Self-Portrait with Burning Cigarette
James Ensor - Ensor with Masks
Pablo Picasso - Self-Portrait with Palette
Egon Schiele - Self-Portrait with Black Clay Vessel
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Self-Portrait with Model
Frida Kahlo - Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair
Felix Nussbaum - Self-Portrait with Jewish Identity Card
Max Beckmann - Self-Portrait in Black
Diego Rivera - Self-Portrait
Salvador Dalí - Dali, Nude, Entranced in the Contemplation of Five Regular Bodies Metamorphosed in Corpuscles, in which Suddenly Appears Leonardo's "Leda", Chromosomatised by the Face of Gala
Lucian Freud - Reflection with Two Children (Self-Portrait)
Andy Warhol - Self-Portrait
Francis Bacon - Self-Portrait
David Hockney - Self-Portrait with Blue Guitar
Albert Oehlen - Self-Portrait with Palette
Gerhard Richter - Court Chapel, Dresden