For many years I painted a self-portrait every year. I called the series “State of the Art”. Unfortunately, I stopped because I didn’t want to be perceived as a narcissist. On the other hand, what artist is not a narcissist? 🙂
The example for this year certainly reflects a lot of what the Covid-19 crisis brought us. And the effects are very diverse – and by no means over.
Much later I remember this well-known painting by Rene Magritte: “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” and so I thought of tearing the picture up. But well, in a way this is my “state of the art” anyway. So it stays.
Last year my “state of the art looked like this, subtitled: hommage à Zhang Huan 張洹
Probably from 1987 or 1988.
From a period when I became fairly familiar with the Chinese ink wash technique.
When I looked for older self-portraits I realize that some are lost – or like in this case – damaged. Looks like I should take better care of my paintings but I tend to treat them like garbage 🙁 I don’t think there is any point in trying to remove the mold stains. So I better give it the title: “state of the art 2050”.
This work is from my early stage but it means a lot to me. I took one of my best friends into the picture, he is standing at the door and he soon died tragically afterward.
As said I did many self-portraits. The first work in a cycle is always interesting. What can I say? I was just very young ……
More of this kind can be seen in: portfolio | protective masks in Beijing | portrait of a Chinese man
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