Self-Portrait

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Concentrating on 150 works by 64 international artists from the past two centuries, this volume contemplates questions of representations of the self and identity. At the simplest level, it can a self-portrait be simply documentary? The self-portrait not only represents physical appearance, but, more tellingly, the artist's conception thereof. In this volume, each of the works was assigned a category, according to a thematic motif determined by the artist's technique of the artist in the studio, pioneers, the course of life, simplification, dissolution, type cast, exhibitionism and mirrors. These revealing categories speak not only to the conceptions of self at work in these portraits, but also to the evolving nature of over time, one's origins and affiliations have become less important as determining factors of identity. The major works represented in this volume include self-portraits by, among others, Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Edvard Munch, Egon Schiele, Frida Kahlo, Andy Warhol, David Hockney and Jean-Michel Basquiat.