Self / Portrait
Artist
Mel Bochner
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1940 - )
Title
Self / Portrait
Creation Date
2013
Century
21st century
Dimensions
75 x 58 in. (190.5 x 147.32 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Creation Place
North America, United States
Medium and Support
oil on canvas
Credit Line
Collection of the artist, Copyright Mel Bochner
Copyright
This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s
Copyright Terms and Conditions.
When Mel Bochner first made word portraits of his close friends in 1966, he simultaneously undertook the challenge of creating a self-portrait. He recalled: “It’s one thing to choose a word to represent someone else, but it’s very hard to objectify your own representation. So I took the words ‘self’ and ‘portrait’ as the key words. "Self / Portrait" lists the synonyms for ‘self’ to the left of the spine and words for ‘portrait’ to the right. When you read across, a totally un-predetermined phrase is created.” In 2013 the artist painted three new versions of his self-portrait. While denying the possibility of a fixed self, the repetition, substitution, transformation, and permutation of words in Bochner’s self-portrait convey identity as fluid. Like his other word portraits, "Self / Portrait" uses language to explore structure and process, key aspects of his broader artistic practice.
