Artwork Title: Self Portrait

Self Portrait, 1929

Isabel Bishop

While Bishop’s art focused on the urban street life, there were two moments—in her youth and old age—when self-portraiture played an important role. As a young woman in the late 1920s, she found herself a convenient subject, noting that self-portraiture may serve just “to provide oneself a model, especially handy for a young artist as a means for studying picture problems.” In this etching, her concerns are formal: structure, form, gesture, and the play of light on a tilted, slightly turned face. The detachment, unreadable expression, and elegant geometry of the head all disguise personality. Even her hand, resting too lightly to support her head, seems merely part of a pose she wished to explore. (http://npg.si.edu/blog/self-portraits-isabel-bishop)
Uploaded on Oct 29, 2017 by Suzan Hamer

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