Title: Picturing the Self
First published: November 25, 2004
Description: Ideas of selfhood, from Descartes' theory of "I think therefore I am" to postmodern notions of the fragmented and de-centred self, have been crucial to the visual arts. Gen Doy explores this relationship, from Holbein's "Ambassadors" and the early modern period up to and beyond Marc Quinn's "Self" (Blood Head). Arguing that the importance of subjectivity for art goes far beyond self-portraits, she explores such topics as self-expression; the self, work and consumption; self-presentation; photography and the theatre of the self; the marginalized - beggars and asylu.
Subjects: Self, Art, Art, themes, motives, etc., Self (Philosophy) in art, Subjectivity in art, Arts, Theory of art