Essay 2

I, Thou, Us, & in Arts, Literatures and Films

Professor Christopher Packard
Student Yeva Stepanova
6th of June 2022

Prior to the Renaissance, painters were hesitant to draw self portraits. Occasionally, a painter
may have included a little resemblance of himself in the backdrop of a crowded group picture,
but never more. When trying to come up with a definition for self-portraiture, the first words that
come into my mind are reflection, analysis, and expression. For me, art has always been an outlet
for painful experiences where drawing myself serves as a tool for overcoming the trauma. To be
honest, I personally believe that physical and emotional pain is the strongest source of art
inspiration that ever existed. These days, art therapy is being used by psychologists to help their
clients overcome depression. While drawing yourself, you focus not only on the facial
expression but also on the state of your inner self that will consequently be reflected in the paper.
This idea prompted me to find out whether there are other artists who practiced self-portraiture to
heal themselves. It turned out that negative emotions such as despair, sorrow, grief, anxiety, and
the handling of ups and downs of the human experience have spawned innumerable works of art
that include the painter as the subject. This concept started to develop back when art therapy did
not exist. Self-portraiture did not become a separate art style until the 1500s, when the artist
Albrecht Dürer started producing realistic pictures of his face and body. Since that time, painters
like Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Frida Kahlo have chosen self-portraiture as a key element of
their drawings. In this essay, I will introduce you to famous self-portraits that were created as a
result of dealing with difficult experiences ranging from mental illness to financial constraints.

The first portrait we are

going to look at is called
The Desperate Man and
was created in 1845. In this
small canvas, a young
artist looks at the observer
with crazy eyes while
grabbing his messy hair.
Courbet is wearing a cheap
oversized shirt and a dark
blue smock. He seems to
be the archetypal Romantic
painter: a talented amateur
artist fighting for
acknowledgment and sustenance. Courbet was starting to cast off the old conventions of older
and highly recognized artists by incorporating new Romantic features into his artworks, and this
battle for self-representation is shown in this piece. "The Desperate Man" is a self-portrait that
carries a straightforward meaning that can be easily identified. The author depicts the hardship of
the Romantic movement and the difficulties of transformation, innovation, and advancement in
the art industry. Courbet reportedly refused to portray mythological creatures because he
believed that one should only draw what he has seen in real life. As shown in "Desperate Man,"
his artistic technique consisted of depicting reality in all its truth such as his own artistic and
financial hardship. Courbet said, "My ambition is to be able to transmit the traditions, thoughts,
and appearance of my time according to my own estimate; to be not only a painter, but also a
man; in short, to make alive art." This idea can be seen in The Desperate Man, in which the artist
is focusing on his concerns and tries to depict them with the help of facial expression and his
unconventional posture. I suppose that this portrait has a special meaning for Courbet, because
he wanted to perpetuate his feelings on canvas to be able to look at this painting after some time
and say “thank you for not giving up” to his younger self. Later on, Courbet became one of the
most celebrated artists of his time due to the authenticity shown in this artwork and in his
personality. The Desperate Man remained in Courbet’s art studio till the end of his life, which
proves that the artist wanted this self-portrait to remind him of his hard work and perseverance
that made him famous.

While some
self-portraits have a
literal meaning, other
artworks contain a
metaphorical
message. For artists,
conveying their
authenticity might be
difficult. There are
times when "candid"
originality is sparked
by tragedy,
unexpected events, or
a staggering
realization. Frida
Kahlo was one
example of this. It's
impossible to
understand her
artworks without looking at the hard aspects of her life. Sufferings pushed her to the source of
creativity as she reshaped the art form. Self-expression is tied to a tragic experience that nearly
ended the artist's own life. Nonetheless, it had a significant impact on her work and her identity
in the long run. Her leg and ankle were badly broken in a bus crash when she was 19 years old.
When Frida was little, Polio left her with a damaged right leg that wasn't fully recovered. Her
back, ribs, and pelvis have been broken in addition to her problem with the leg. She was
incapable of having children when an iron rod passed through her tummy. The motif of
undeserved sufferings became an integral part of the majority of her artworks. Her rehabilitation
took a long time since she was confined to a wheelchair and forced to rest in bed for months. She
made the decision to focus only on art after that. In several of her finished pieces, she was able to
pose as the subject of a painting owing to a cleverly-placed mirror. She once said, “I paint myself
because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best” - this idea has a lot in common with
Courbet’s appreciation of realism. (Frida Kahlo Foundation, 2002–2013). She represents herself
at Henry Ford Clinic nude and covered with blood, reclining on the hospital bed in a pool of her
own bodily fluids. This picture depicts a highly personal scene that gives us an insight into
Frida's experience at the hospital during her pregnancy. Adding to the sense of powerlessness
and alienation are the bent figure and the tipped-up bed. Her uneasiness was evident in the
position of her body in this painting: the upper part of her torso is facing the viewer, while the
lower part of the body is turned away. Six floating items are placed around her, carrying a
metaphorical meaning that reflects her grief because of losing a child. A fetus symbolizes her
child, a boy she has always wanted. An orchid flower has the appearance of a uterus, a female
body part where a child is being carried for 9 months. The red ropes on her tummy resemble
placentas because of the way she presses them on her abdomen. The snail signifies how much
time the operation took. Things Frida has seen or recalled during her stay in the hospital make up
the rest of the objects she has beside her. While painting her personal story, Kahlo depicts herself
as a spiritual character who questions the cause of her pain and creates art to protest rather than
to express appreciation. She is incapable of having children, and we can see tears in Frida's eyes
as she cries.

Similar to Frida Kahlo, I tend to create

self-portraits that are infused with different
objects and forms that have a metaphorical
connotation. For me, the best way to overcome
a difficult situation is to release my feelings
and concerns with the help of art and
self-expression. This particular collage is
untitled and was created in October, 2019. At
that time, I just graduated from high school in
Kharkiv, Ukraine and faced a painful breakout
for the first time in my life. People whom I
used to consider my friends betrayed me by
spreading fake information about my personal life. Having learned that I won a scholarship to
study in Georgia, I started to consider this opportunity as a relief from this situation. However, it
turned out that wherever you go, your problems will travel there with you and will adjust to a
new environment. At that point of life, I started to wonder whether I am the source and the
reason for all the unpleasant experiences that I dealt with. This idea is shown with the help of
devil's horns and the corresponding phrase above my head. In this illustration, half of my face is
covered with a concrete sculpture, which signifies the past that can not be changed and will
forever be a part of my personality whether I like it or not. Two roses, flowers that are very
beautiful but have a lot of thorns, suggest that I have to pay for the beauty and freedom that I was
gifted. There is always an element of jealousy that forces me to deal with troubles. Having
analyzed my own artwork, I can say with certainty that it has a lot in common with Courbet’s
and Kahlo’s worldviews. Similar to Courbet, I believe that it’s important to capture the moments
of struggle because I will be able to get back to my self-portraits and learn from my experiences
in the future. When drawing a parallel with Frida, I am also convinced that most of traumatic
experiences have shaped most of my identity, therefore, depicting them is an act of accepting and
appreciating my life with all of its drawbacks.

Self-Portrait 1901, which was painted shortly

after the death of Carlos Casagemas, reveals
Picasso's intense sadness after the loss of his
companion and is evocative of Vincent van
Gogh's self-portraits. Casagemas committed
suicide in a local cafe in Paris in February,
when Picasso was abroad, and this
unexpected tragedy had a huge influence on
the painter, who proved that he began
painting in blue tones following his friend's
passing. Picasso, who was young and
innocent at the time, created Self-Portrait
1901 almost 12 months after the tragedy that
changed him so much. In this painting, he
enables the public to witness his own grief
and melancholy as he strives to find a way to
deal with his loss. Picasso is just twenty
years old in this artwork, yet he appears to be
older, and it’s not because he actually looked
old but rather he intentionally wanted to
depict himself like this. Similar to Courbet,
Picasso put a lot of effort into drawing his face in detail to show that grief makes him look old
and sick. The delicately textured blue backdrop and the violet coat express both the literal cold of
the severe Parisian january as well as a mental isolation from the individual's environment. His
heavy winter coat is depicted with the use of broad brushstrokes of deep violet, and black
contours are used to indicate the hands. The blue color of the backdrop might simply be
symbolizing night as readily as it reflects his melancholy, generating the illusion that the artist
has insomnia owing to his depression. The general feeling that one gets is one of hopelessness:
that of a tortured artist who has been isolated from society. It is impossible to talk about Picasso’s
art between 1901 and 1904 without mentioning the Blue Period. The painter himself described
this period as a drastic change in his emotional well being after losing a friend and moving to an
impoverished region of paris where he faced poverty, prostitution, and hunger. Monochromatic
blue tones are the main feature of his paintings during that period and they serve as an ultimate
representation of deep and destructive feelings that Picasso was experiencing.

The psychological depth portrayed in

Picasso's dark is evocative of Vincent van
Gogh's artwork called Self-Portrait with
Bandaged Ear, 1889. Vincent van Gogh's
self-portrait, one of his most well-known
works, embodies both his creative prowess
and his inner turmoil. It was created in
January 1889, about a week after Van Gogh
was discharged from the hospital. Prior to
this, he removed a major part of his left ear
and had to seek medical treatment in this
facility. Van Gogh was eager to show to the
doctors that he was feeling good and
capable of taking care of his health - he did
not want to be sent to a clinic for
psychopaths. Therefore, the winter jacket
and hat tell us about the courage of the artist
to follow the doctor's recommendation to
keep his body warm, with a window being
open to breathe the fresh air. Van Gogh
depicts the bandage to show that he recognizes what he has done and is delighted to take his
medication. All of these facts highlight the artist's willingness to do everything so that he could
get back to drawing. However, the main question that this portrait raises is not why Van Gogh
decided to draw himself with a bandage but the question why did he end up cutting his ear? He
was troubled by episodes of paranoia, outbreaks of rage, and some contemporary psychologists
believe he had bipolar disease. According to some reports, Van Gogh gave his chopped ear to a
prostitute Gabriel Barlatier and asked her to look after it. It's possible that a combination of
internal struggles, such as hatred, anxiety, and insanity, as well as external factors contributed to
this unbelievably bizarre behavior. We don't know nearly enough about the factors that affected
artist's mental health so severely. There are so many doubts regarding Van Gogh's psyche, which
was always unstable. The name and theme of Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear are only two of
the many aspects of this piece. The person shown in the artwork isn't merely a wounded soul
who, in moments of serenity, begins to recover but it is also a man who is attempting to cure his
own psyche from the harm it has inflicted on himself through time.

While all of the previous self-portraits were created by

the artists in order to cope with their traumatic
experiences and concerns, the last self-portrait we are
going to talk about performs the task of conveying a
specific message to the audience. Boris Mikhailov was
born in Kharkiv, Easterm Ukraine. He is an engineer but
his growing dissent from the Soviet regime inspired
Boris to become a contemporary photographer.
Mikhailov examines the wide-ranging and sometimes
catastrophic transformations caused by Russia that
continue to impact his country. The body of Boris is the
central figure in this untitled self-portrait from 2014. For
Boris Mikhailov, the decision to include nudity to his
self-portrait was made in order to express the
heartbreaking frailty of a human who was born in Soviet
times and has to adapt to a completely new reality of
post-USSR life. In this case, the author uses his body as
the subject of the picture not only to express his own
struggles but to show that many people of his age feel
the same. The photographer put the camera at an unusual angle and placed his body in an
uncomfortable, ugly position, with his eyes pointed away from the camera. The feelings that are
being evoked by his look are a sense of pity, sympathy, and compassion. Boris intentionally
bends his knees and elbows to create the look of a vulnerable, unprotected human being. He also
tries to break the Soviet stereotype that a man should always have a strong and emotionless look.
To conclude, it can be said that traumatic experiences often serve as inspiration for artists
to create self-portraits. The process of infusing the self-portrait with details that depict the
feelings and emotions of the artist seem to be helpful at healing. Drawing a self-portrait requires
the artist to reflect, analyze, and process whatever he has experienced. Therefore, this is an
effective way of overcoming a situation and growing from it. Some artists like Frida Kahlo
express themselves through objects that have a metaphorical meaning, while others use color
(Picasso), intensiveness of brushstrokes (Van Gogh), and realistic details of their body (Courbet)
to give the viewer a sense of what the artist is going through.