Self-Portraits

Taschen Basic Genre

by Ernst Rebel

The self as a subject is one of the most fascinating and fruitful of artistic enterprises. From the 15th century to today, this collection brings together some of the best examples of self-portraiture to explore the genre’s evolution over the centuries as well as the enduring questions of selfhood and self-representation that have besieged human experience for centuries before social media and the selfie. Is a self-portrait of an artist a medium of reflection? Or is it merely a black void, the “false mirror,” as the Surrealist René Magritte entitled his 1928 painting of an eye? How much does it impart about contemporary notions of beauty, power, and status? From Albrecht Dürer to Egon Schiele, Fra Filippo Lippi to Frida Kahlo, this far-reaching collection explores the numerous ways in which artists have taken themselves as subjects, the variety of ingenious methods and perspectives they have used, and the intriguing questions they raise. About the series Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Art History series approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions a detailed, illustrated introduction a selection of the most important works of the epoch, each presented on a two-page spread with a full-page image and accompanying interpretation, as well as a portrait and brief biography of the artist

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

95 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Professor of Art History at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Reviews

[Zacary Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the editorial/analysis/essay content wanders off-topic, but there's some great color prints and descriptions.

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente idea, con una selección interesante, aunque euro-centrica de artistas. Los único artistas no-europeos representados son Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo y sólo aparecen dos mujeres Frida Kahlo y Rosalba Carriero.

El autor deliberadamente ha escogido una fascinante variedad de contextos en que aparecen autorretratos del artista. Por ejemplo, Miguel Angel, anticipándose a Francis Bacon, se autorretrata en una escena del Juicio Final, en la piel despellejada de San Bartolomé, el Maestro Gerlachus en un detalle de un vitral, Caravaggio es la cabeza decapitada de Goliat, James Ensor se pinta entre máscaras, Munch entre candilejas, Parmigianino en un espejo concavo...

En resumen, muy recomendable.

[S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

İçeriğini (açıklamaları) sevmedim. Olmasını umduğum sayıda çalışma da yok.

[Marzia_Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! So many fantastic descriptions!

[Komal Patel-Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Analysis quite dry, and but pictures are all in colour and of good quality

[Bouchra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I need to buy more art books

[Lukas Bravo Nicolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un libro que cumple lo que promete y sirve de inicio para este tema

[Luciana Nery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent choices. My favorites, among the self-portraits that were new to me, were Munch, Bailly, Dalí, Oehlen. And then old favorites, like Michelangelo as St. Bartholomew, Van Gogh and the missing ear, and decapitated Caravaggio.

Text good as always - this collection has very consistent quality throughout. Any book of this series is an honest primer on an artist. Then, if you like the artist, buy a more complete book.

[Filipe Russo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pictures could have been bigger and the way you need to go backtracking or jumping forward to see the images the text talks about is just bad design. The self-portraits and their contextualization are nice though.