Used for introducing a teaching unit on Self Portrait with my Year 9 & 10 students. Has produced some amazing conversations with students!

1. Self-Portrait

2. Why do artists make self portraits?

3. These are all self portraits of the same person:
as a child,
as a woman,
and
as a man…
Say what?!

4. Meet ‘Angry Man’!
What do you notice first
about this image?
Why would the female artist
make a picture of themself as
a man and not a woman?
Why is he screaming?
It’s not very flattering, is it?
Does that matter?

5. Angry Man is a stencil.
The image is about:
•Gender stereotypes: and how
men are seen as more
aggressive and confrontational
•How all people have traits
that could be described as
feminine or masculine.
•How we all need a voice, but
sometimes there are no words
for how we feel.

6. Pablo Picasso
Self portrait 1901
Self portrait 1907
Compare these two self
portraits.
What is the first thing you
notice in each one?
What are the main differences?
Any similarities?

7. Picasso was living in Paris, far from family and home. He was
unrecognized, unappreciated and living in extreme poverty.
This work was painted after the suicide of one of Picasso’s close
friends,and marked the beginning of what is called his “Blue Period”
(1901-1904). His face is deathly white, and he looks a lot older than
he was. He has painted himself the way he felt - lonely, isolated and
miserable.
The mood of a painting can be strongly influenced by its colours.
Blue was chosen deliberately to intensify the melancholy and
hopelessness of the figures depicted.
This later portrait is almost childlike - the warm colours give it life and
energy, and the lines are bold and confident. Even though this is a
later painting, the subject looks younger. We can tell his life has
improved.
At this time,Picasso had an interest in old African masks, and the face
in this portrait looks almost mask-like. The angular shapes show the
direction the artist was moving in - towards cubism and abstraction.

8. What do you notice first?
What is she wearing?
What is the portrait on her forehead?
Do the lines remind you of anything?
What can we discover about the artist from her portrait?

9. Frida Kahlo was the daughter of a Mexican-Indian mother and a German
father. At age 6, she was stricken with polio, which caused her right leg to
shrivel (something she later hid beneath her long Mexican dresses).
When she was 18, she was involved in a serious bus accident which left her
with a broken spinal column, collarbone, ribs, pelvis, and 11 fractures in her
right leg. In addition her right foot was dislocated and crushed, and her
shoulder was out of joint. For a month at a time, Frida was forced to stay flat on
her back, encased in a plaster cast.
Frida's recovery was miraculous, and she regained her ability to walk.
However, she lived with chronic pain her whole life.
She married a famous Mexican painter called Diego Rivera. He was more
than 20 years older than Frida, and a notorious womaniser. Their relationship
was stormy - they divorced then got re-married. The portrait on her forehead is
of Diego - she cannot get him off her mind. He is permanent as a tattoo
perhaps. She began the painting the year they divorced.
Her outfit is a traditional tehuana wedding dress. The Tehuana were the
indigenous Indians of the region and part of Frida’s whakapapa that she
related strongly too. Diego encouraged her to to wear traditional clothing - she
is showing pride in her Indian roots and also painting herself in clothing her
husband admired.
The lines coming from her hair look like spiders webs - perhaps to trap her
prey (Diego).
Frida had a strong black eyebrows - but rather than hide them, she made a
feature of them and they became her most famous trade mark: the world’s
most famous monobrow!
Frida Kahlo, 1943
Diego on My Mind
(Frida as Tehuana)

10. SILENTLY! Come up with an adjective for how this
painting makes you feel
What colours has the artist used?
How do you think the artist was feeling when he
painted this?
Do you think it is a very good painting? Is he a very
good artist?

11. Francis Bacon, Self portrait 1971
Francis Bacon is one Britain’s most famous
painters. He wasn’t interested in painting what
he saw in the mirror - he painted what he FELT
on the inside.
The colours are dark and brooding. The artist
has used a lot of blacks and greys, and paired
complementary colours (blue and orange;
purple and yellow, red and green) on the face -
this makes the work more disturbing/energetic
than analogous colours would. It creates
tension and disharmony.
His eyes are too big - the sockets are huge! The
nose is all buckled and the mouth is half missing.
It looks like half his face is collapsing.
Bacon’s alcoholic lover died tragically the year
this was painted. The artist is showing his inner
turmoil and anxiety. The black background
highlights his isolation and feelings of aloneness.

12. Compare these two paintings by
Rita Angus:
What things are similar?
What differences can you see?
Can you see any symbols?
Why would Rita have called
herself “Rutu” in the later
painting?
What do you think she is trying
to say about herself in each
work?
Self portrait, 1937 Self portrait/“Rutu”, 1951

13. Now think about your portrait.
You can choose what parts of yourself
you want to show.
You might want to think about:
The angle and direction - which way are
you looking?
Where will you be on the page?
Symbols?
Background?
Props?
Exaggeration?
What kind of MOOD do you want to
portray?
Ms Duncan, 2009
“Self-Portrait as Angry Man”