High Fidelity
Have you ever struggled with the “About Me” section of a profile you’ve made? I don’t know about you, but it’s pretty damn challenging for me to sum myself up in less than 400 characters.
I’m going to make a statement that I bet you won’t disagree with. Ready?
You are a very complex, interesting, and unique person.
The obscenely complex entity you call ‘You’ is really a summation of all of the thoughts, actions, and ideas of yourself and the world you live in that you’ve ever had.
To turn your eyes into your head and relay what they see without losing fidelity is one of the most intellectually, emotionally, and artistically demanding things an artist can attempt.
But don’t just take my word for it- Have a look for yourself:
Ascent Into Savagery
“I am trying to put into these desolate figures the savagery I see in them and in me too…” -Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin was a Post Impressionist born in France in 1848.
In his Self Portrait With Halo, the heavenly head of Paul Gauguin floats before flowers and fruit as he glances from his peripherie with a mischievous smirk and a snake entwined in his fingers.
Gauguin was a wanderlust-ridden rebel with a great mustache and a mind wild enough to break the stale chains of Impressionism and inspire the likes of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. He sought a more primitive life, and as such, towards the end of his days he left his wife and children to live simply in the Tropics.
During the painting of Self Portrait With Halo, Gauguin was living out of an inn on the Southern coast of France in a small town called Le Pouldu. He had attempted suicide only months prior, which explains the subtle resilience conveyed through his smirk. The painting is colorful, full of contrast, and all too self aware- Just like Gauguin himself at the time he painted it.
Descent Into Madness
“They say — and I am willing to believe it — that it is difficult to know yourself — but it isn’t easy to paint yourself either.” -Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent Van Gogh is the archetype for the starving artist. His life was anything but stable. He moved homes as frequently as he moved jobs, and he fell in love even more than that.
At the time of this self portrait’s painting, Vincent Van Gogh was living in Arles in the famous “Little Yellow House”, where his artistry thrived in inverse with his mental and physical condition. After a while, Van Gogh’s younger brother grew worried and implored Paul Gauguin- to whom the self portrait is dedicated- to go look after him.
Given the privilege of hindsight, we know that at the time of this self portrait’s completion, Van Gogh was on the verge of insanity. He ate paint, he sipped turpentine, and he lived off only bread. A few months later, he infamously severed his ear and was committed to an insane asylum for rehabilitation.
This newly offered context of the reality in which Van Gogh lived at the time of the completion of Self Portrait Dedicated to Gauguin allows us to better understand some of the motifs present:
The serenity in his blank stare suddenly becomes ery and indicative of someone not all there. The dull, soothing blue of the background becomes a veritable “padded room” that he might have kept himself in-in his own head. Above all, he looks alone. His own irrational thoughts bring him the same alienation as his move to the Little Yellow House in Arles.
In this self portrait, we see a man, isolated.
The Art of the Self Portrait is only available, in its’ fullest and most gratifying form, to those who have mastered the disciplines it requires. An honest self portrait created by a Master is more insightful than any “About Me” you could ever hope for.
They invite us to step into their reality for a moment; to see their world through their eyes. Self portraits of this caliber are every bit as complex, interesting, and unique as the artists they depict.
