Reflection - Self Portrait

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on January 23, 2020 at 4:25pm

Curator's Comments:

 

This piece, identified as Reflection- Self portrait, is haunting if not disturbingly graphic. The shadows appear boldly articulated along the emaciated torso of the figure, and the piece overall appears to engage in a more complex dialogue than most of your other works.  While the other portraits you’ve posted show technical prowess, they appear more direct in content, and in their centralized and straightforward compositional placement. Reflection demonstrates both an actual reflection of the body, along with a psychological inventory of a corporeal form. The close cropping of the figure allows the viewer voyeuristic entry into the space, but our gaze is returned by the small head reflected in the mirror.  I find myself going back and forth between the body and its reflection. Something doesn’t quite add up. It’s as if the reflection is a slighter softer version of the taught- ribbed back immediately before us.  This vague dissonance keeps me coming back to the piece, as a complaint observer.

 

Comment by Denis Ponsot on June 12, 2011 at 12:59pm

Powerful 5*****