Description:
Eleven head and shoulder self-portrait photographs of the artist, shirtless with cigarette in his mouth, arranged in a grid with an image of a brick wall in the upper left.

Label Text:
Label text from “The Art of Collecting: Contemporary Prints from the Risa Gerrig Collection,” September 10 – October 12, 2014:
Close embarks on an exploration of the self in this print. Each frame within the overall work varies slightly from the next, as the artist plays with expression, camera angle, and the presence and absence of a cigarette, consciously manipulating the image of himself and forging a carefully constructed persona. The grid-like pattern of the eleven frames is echoed by the pattern of the brick wall which constitutes the upper left frame. This brick wall reinforces the idea of layers of the self, established by the subtle variations seen between frames. It also pointedly refers to the deliberate construction of self-identity. - Felicia Bolaske (B.A. ‘14)

Tags:
self-portraits

Subjects:
Self-portraits

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=UM+2013.14

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