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SELF PORTRAIT UK
Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow. Sat 13 Sep-Sun 16 Nov
What do you see when you look in the mirror? Who stares back at you? Is it a stranger, an old friend, someone you like, someone you regret? And how would you show yourself to the world? Red-rimmed eyes an’ all; memories an' all, hurts, disgraces, pride, pleasures. There’s a blank canvas on which to paint your image; take up the brush.
And such was the gauntlet that Channel 4 laid down to the people of Britain in a national self-portraiture campaign. From over 5000 entries, 100 were selected to form a touring exhibition, of which several were also filmed and shown in the notoriously arty zone just after Jon Snow bids farewell on the Channel 4 News around about 7.55pm.
Jessica Emmett submerges herself under deep, clear bath water, holding onto her floating breasts, face obscured by clouds of dark hair and says in the caption: ‘ln water I feel like a size 10 model.‘ David Hood stands stark against a white wall - shaved head, proud, bearded grimace and a white, stained vest stretched over his barrel of a chest and gut. Tomomi Muto stares out in muted, painted tones, calm and considered saying: ‘My self-portrait is like a mirror of my mind.‘ Others show themselves as series of library cards
- episodes of a life typed out and tucked into little brown sleeves, and in me and only me Dan Dee writes: ‘I sometimes feel that I should be dead/ put a 9 to the side of my head/ just think I‘m only 16/ I‘m trying to for fell my dream and be a rap musician/ instead to being stuck in the middle of this turf claiming collision . . . ‘
It's all there. With impressive
Baljit Barlow for Self Portrait UK
honesty people living in the UK at the beginning of the new millennium have laid themselves bare, opened themselves up to scrutiny and revealed themselves as a unique bunch of people finding unique ways of saying, this is me: take it or leave it. And that‘s about as much as you can hope for in this life.
(Ruth Hedges)
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HELEN FRANKENTHALER: PAINTINGS ON PAPER (1949-2002)
Royal Scottish Academy Building, Edinburgh, until Sun 26 Oct 0000
In a room full of l rankenthalei works on paper, what first strikes you is the flox-ring and spontaneous dualit\, that each '-.'.'ork possesses, lhen you notice the intense colour. suffused onto the papm to forn‘. abstract shapes and tmsting lines.
American artist Helen Fr'ankenthaler‘ innovated the stain- painting technique in the 19:30:; and this exhibition of over -1() works shows the development of her art and career.
l mm the early works that reference cubism, Gorky. de Kooning and Pollock to Urrrrt/eo' bubble gum i‘./r'appe.rv which predates Pop Art, Frankenthalei has studied the art of the past and understood what makes those pieces work. l‘he large-scale works. and her most recent. reveal her understanding and handling of subject and paint. In the rich, garnet red of From the Master (2002). she takes one single element from a late Rembrandt self-portrait ~ the highlight that reflects off the tip of his nose ~ and incorporates it into the composition wrth a single. delicate mark. In Lighthouse Series X/l. she employs the dark. cobalt grey tones of \./\/histler's palette.
Throughout her Frankenthaler has stored up what she considers to be the defining details in a great work of art. This detail. together wrth a strong sense of colour and space. has produced a body of work which is both fascmating and beautiful to behold.
(Helen Monaghani
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Art
GOYA KOLLWITZ AND cunnis Glasgow Print Studio. Glasgow. until Sat 13 Sep
CO. I .. I l Self Portrait 1912 by Kathe Kollwitz
THE LIST 85