Self-Portrait

Self-portraiture has been practiced for roughly six hundred years, and it still draws people in. Artists who turn their own faces and bodies into subject matter have long wrestled with questions of who we are, what gives our lives direction, what counts as genuine in ourselves, and how fragile and temporary we are.

Part of the Art Essentials series, this book by Natalie Rudd examines the self-portrait's appeal across cultures and periods. It traces the historical circumstances in which the form developed and asks what these images mean to viewers today. Its discussions cover work by Jan van Eyck, Francisco Goya, Vincent van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, Faith Ringgold and Cindy Sherman, with attention to how the genre can express and evoke feeling.

Rudd also surveys the materials artists use to represent themselves, from paint and photography to installation and performance. Throughout, she returns to a central puzzle: why do artists keep coming back to the self-portrait?

The book considers how notions of individuality and selfhood are shifting in an era when personal identity is under constant scrutiny, and Rudd addresses these questions in her text.