Matthew Collings is best known as the presenter of the TV series "This is Modern Art". He is also an artist, writer and general-purpose contemporary art commentator. He doesn’t pretend there is one truth, or one way of looking or talking about art. With this in mind Ever Wondered sent him out to check on the modern interpretation of the self portrait…

 

"What do people want from art?"

What I want is a painting in the National Gallery of a self portrait by Salvatore Rosa, the Italian artist who worked in Florence in the 17th century. I like this painting because it’s what an artist should be like, focused, intense: it’s like a romantic ideal, not just of the artist but of art. Seriousness in its aspirations. I’m happy that the painting is in the Gallery, preserved, maintained, in this museum of ideals.

But what are the ideals of the present moment? What’s the art that crystallizes in the air now? The latest sculpture by Damien Hirst is 20 feet high, its head is literally up in the ceiling. Can this huge child’s toy that costs about £15 to buy in the shop be called ’Art.’ It’s not a self-portrait but then it’s a portrait of mankind so it is a portrait of him and everyone else.

In all Sarah Lucas’s work she keeps up an idea of some kind of self-portrait. Often she’s literally herself in the work, like a photo of herself, but you never learn anything about her real self or her inner self or her story. She universalizes herself but in a very sad or bleak idea of what a ’self’ might be; the self as a human toilet, or in another work as a kind of puddle seeping out of a bath, the self as human waste.

An example of realism in self portraiture can be seen in the work by Ron Mueck. His real face "Mask" is made incredibly realistic as a 5 foot high frown. It’s a piece of art that everyone can recognize. It’s a type of realism that’s very hard, very blunt, that says there’s nowhere else for the real to go. Another example of a very different kind of self portrait is Gavin Turk’s famous painting of Che Guevara. Although it isn’t actually Che Guevara most of us wouldn’t know that it’s the artist Gavin Turk. Even if you did it wouldn’t tell you any more about Gavin Turk’s personality, and it’s not telling me any more about Che Guevara’s personality. All I know, is that it’s a work about an idea.

Salvatore Rosa who mostly painted landscapes, wanted to advertise himself to an audience of patrons as a type of artistic genius in his self portrait. In fact everything about it can be taken apart and can be looked at as something Rosa has made up that he’s wanted to project about himself, just as everything in Ant Noises can be taken apart and looked at, and examined"

If you are interested in looking at philosophical access in our own nature and situation then have a look at course A211 Philosophy and the Human Situation

If you would like to find out more about Modern Art and the artists mentioned then these might help:

Books you can read

Damien Hirst, Gordon Burn, Faber, ISBN 0571202578

Sarah Lucas,Museum Boymans van Beuningen, ISBN 9069181541

The National Gallery Companion Guide, Erika Langmuir, National Gallery Company, ISBN 185709218

Assuming Positions, Sarah Lucas, Institute of Contemporary Arts, ISBN 1900300109

17th and 18th Century Art, Julius Held, Harry N. Abrams, ISBN 0810900327

Links You Can Surf

For more information on the National Gallery

For more information on The National Portrait Gallery

For more information on Matthew Collings and his work

Also on this site : You can join Diarmuid Gavin as he goes back to nature and Jenny Agutter when she visits Cornwall to find out why artists are attracted to this holiday resort.

If you think you might be interested in studying more about these subjects, find out what the Open University has to offer.

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