| Vendor | |
|---|---|
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C.H.BECK
Anna-Sophia Mäder |
| Original language | |
| German | |
| Categories | |
| Weblink | |
| htps://www.chbeck.de/schneede-m- … | |
Me! Self-portraits in the modern age
Vincent van Gogh to Cindy Sherman
Like the Christian altarpiece in the Middle Ages or the landscape throughout Romanticism, the self-portrait makes for a powerful symbol of art in the twentieth century.
Self-portraits are not, however, a product of the modern age. They were already there during the Renaissance, but it was only in the twentieth century they found their way to a central position and became a key element in the work of artists, male and female alike.
While it was initially a case of ruthless self-analysis, as in the works of Van Gogh, Munch, Kollwitz or Paula Modersohn-Becker, after 1960 or so the protagonist’s body itself played a part, as in the work of Bruce Naumann, Cindy Sherman, Marina Abramović or Joseph Beuys. In his writing Uwe M. Schneede himself paints an impressive picture of how, over a period of one hundred years or so, artists’ motivations in terms of content and form repeatedly underwent a paradigm shift – and in doing so he presents a different narrative on modern art by way of the self-portrait.