SELF-PORTRAIT: A Cultural History

Modern artists are far from the first to have exploited the power and potential of the self portrait which has become the defining visual genre of our confessional age. Art historian and critic James Hall brilliantly maps the history from the earliest myths of Narcissus and the Christian tradition of 'bearing witness' to the prolific self-image making of today's contemporary artists, the explosion of the genre during the Renaissance, the confessional self portraits of Titian and Michelangelo, Courbet and Van Gogh, the themes of sex and genius in works by Munch, Bonnard and Modersohn-Becker. Comic and caricature, imaginary, key collections such as that of the Medici in Florence, throughout Hall asks why and when artists have chosen to make self portraits and the mindsets of the artists who had created them. Comprehensive and beautifully illustrated, the book features the work or artists including Alberti, Caravaggio, Dürer, Emin, Gauguin, Giotto, Goya, Kahlo, Koons, Magritte, Mantegna, Picasso, Raphael, Rembrandt and Warhol in a lively and rich history which contextualises the tradition in relation to the cultural climate of its time. 120 illustrations, many in colour, 288pp in large Thames & Hudson softback.