Cindy Sherman (American, born 1954), Untitled Film Still #56, 1980, Black and white photograph, Des Moines Art Center Permanent Collections; Purchased with funds from the Edmundson Art Foundation, Inc., 1992.40, Photo by Rich Sanders, Des Moines.
On view in the Blank One Gallery through April 24, 2016 at the Des Moines Art Center, “Selfie: Self Portraits From the Permanent Collection”considers both well-known and little seen self-portraits through the filter of this popular cultural obsession of self.
Danny Lyon (American, born 1942), My Triumph, broken gearbox spring, New Orleans, 1964, printed 2006, Silver gelatin print, Des Moines Art Center Permanent Collections; Gift of Jeff Perry in honor of Myron and Jacqueline Blank, 2009.129, Photo by Rich Sanders, Des Moines.
Works by Rembrandt van Rijn, Anthony van Dyke, Chuck Close, Cindy Sherman, Mauricio Lasansky and Danny Lyon among others span the 17th century to the present. The Early Renaissance gave rise to the popularity of the self-portrait by painters, sculptors and printmakers. In many cases mirrors were used to assist artists in creating their likeness, while in modern times the camera, both still and moving, has enabled artists to create the final work.
This exhibit considers this history in relation to the rise of the self-portrait in social media. Online statistical sources confirm that Instagram has over 53 million photos tagged with the hashtag #selfie, while the word “selfie” was mentioned in Facebook status updates over 368,000 times during a one-week period in October 2013, offering compelling statistical evidence of an ongoing and fundamental human desire for self-representation.
Photo from the film, “Me and My Mother” 2010 by Ragnar Kjartansson.
One of the most recent works in the exhibition is a video self-portrait by the conceptual artist Ragnar Kjartansson titled “Me and My Mother 1” 2001, in which the artist asks his mother to repeatedly spit in his face for 10 minutes.
