Get Up Close to Portrait Art

Mirror, Mirror; Mulatta Seeking Inner Negress II by Alison Saar. Woodcut on chine-collé (2015). National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Come with us to Florida! Watch the new video for "Eye to I: Self Portraits from the National Portrait Gallery" at the Boca Raton Museum of Art. The exhibit is now offered online for audiences at home.

Now, more than ever, these haunting self-portraits stand out in new ways that the artists could not have foreseen. Each one grabs the viewer with their gaze, touching the heart. These powerful works are from every decade between 1901 and 2015.

This exhibit was originally on view in Washington at the National Portrait Gallery. And the traveling version of this exhibition is different from the original Smithsonian show that was previously on view in Washington, DC – all of the works on paper are new and were chosen especially for the national tour, as are several of the paintings.

Self-portraits by prominent figures in the history of portraiture include: Robert Arneson, Thomas Hart Benton, Deborah Kass, Elaine de Kooning, Alexander Calder, Jasper Johns, Allan Kaprow, Jacob Lawrence, Louise Nevelson, Irving Penn, Robert Rauschenberg, Fritz Scholder, and Roger Shimomura. 

The show was organized by the Chief Curator of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian, Dr. Brandon Brame Fortune. Eye to I  showcases 60 works in a variety of styles and media ranging from caricatures to photographs, from colorful watercolors to dramatic paintings and time-based media. 

The exhibition traces the process, from gazing into the mirror to looking into the camera; from painted and drawn surfaces to mechanical reproductions such as prints and photographs; from static forms to video.