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Eye Candy
Selfies through the Centuries, from the 1500's to Warhol
Long before iPhones, Snapchat filters, Kim Kardashian, and Cindy Sherman, painters like Rembrandt were painstakingly accepting their worst angles and inventing their best, all in pursuit of the art of the selfie. It's a torch that Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol, and Marina Abramovic have all nobly helped carry throughout the centuries, rendering their own likenesses in everything from pencil to Polaroid film to oil paint. "Facing the World," up now at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, gathers nearly 500 years' worth of artists self-portraits. See the best, from Ai Weiwei's hospital-bed snaps to hooligans tearing into ricotta in the 1500's, here.
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Andy Warhol, "Self-Portrait with Platinum Bouffant Wig," 1981.
© bpk / Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
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Hans Thoma, "Self-Portrait with Love and Death," 1875.
ZKM | Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015
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Marina Abramović, "Art must be Beautiful, Artist must be Beautiful," 1975.
Image © Lyon MBA - Photo Alain Basset
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Joseph Vivien, "Self-Portrait (Autoportrait à la palette)," 1715.
Courtesy Ai Weiwei Studio © Ai Weiwei
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Ai Weiwei, "[Untitled – Hospital selfie]," 2009.
Scottish National Gallery
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Palma Vecchio (Jacopo Negretti), "Self-Portrait," 1510.
ARTIST ROOMS National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. Lent by Artist Rooms Foundation 2014. Self Portrait, 1980 © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission.
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Robert Mapplethorpe, "Self Portrait," 1980.
Image © Lyon MBA - Photo Alain Basset
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Vincenzo Campi, "The Ricotta Eaters," ca.1580.
Image © Lyon MBA - Photo Alain Basset
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Gustave Courbet, "The Lovers in the Countryside, Feelings of Youth (The Happy Lovers)," 1844.
Copyright National Galleries of Scotland. Photography by John McKenzie.
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James Nasmyth, "Back of Hand," 1874.
Image © Lyon MBA - Photo Alain Basset
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Louise Janmot, "Self-portrait," 1832.
© bpk / Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
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Samuel Van Hoogstraten, "Trompe-l’oeil (Still Life)," 1966.
ARTIST ROOMS National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. Lent by Artist Rooms Foundation 2014. Self Portrait, 1985 © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission.
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Robert Mapplethorpe, "Self Portrait," 1985.
Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery (Bridgewater Loan, 1945)
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Rembrandt, "Self-Portrait, Aged 51," c.1657.
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Photography by Antonia Reeve.
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Paul Klee, "Gespenst eines Genies, no. 10 [Ghost of a Genius]," 1922.
© bpk / Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
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Anselm Feuerbach, "Self-portrait as a Young Man," 1852-53.
Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Presented by the Scottish Arts Council 1997 © John Byrne. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2016.
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