Classical Self Representation

The Presentations

MyGrave

Christopher West and Aline Weyel of the Rietveld Art Academy presented their project about what happens when you die.. will your digital profile turn into a gravestone?

Aram Bartholls

Katja Novitskova will elaborate on Aram Bartholls work, which represents a new area of making art, using digital and virtual words to inspire the real world, shown on i.e. ARS Electronica and club Transmediale.

Self-portraits

Self-portraits are known since the middle ages. They were developed during fifteenth and sixteenth century for example by Durer and Leonardo da Vinci.

It was Kasia Rypinkska who discusses this subject.

Around 1630 the self- portrait had a well-established role in promoting and sustaining an artist's reputation in Europe. Most sixteenth- and seventeenth- century artist did not depict themselves in working cloths with the tools of their trade. To do so would be to associate them with craft profession of the humbler classes.
They presented themselves instead as perfect gentelman relaxing with one ungloved hand in a setting that hinted at a princely lifestyle.

How did the artists wanted to be seen and why Rembrandt painted 75 self- portraits? We tried to give an answer to those questions during this meeting on self representation in the seventeenth century art.

life through YouTube at Mediamaticimage via Aram Bartholl's blog www.datenform.de/blog/

Self portraits of the seventeenth century led to a new form of self promotion.

The self-portrait can be a very effective form of advertising for an artist, especially of course for a portrait painter. Dürer was not really interested in portraits commercially, but made good use of his extraordinary self-portraits to advertise himself as an artist, something he was very sophisticated in doing. Rembrandt made his living principally from portrait-painting during his most successful period, and like Van Dyck and Joshua Reynolds, many of his portraits were certainly intended to advertise his skills. With the advent of regular Academy shows, many artists tried to produce memorable self-portraits to make an impression on the artistic stage.

The self-portraits of artists who suffered mental illnesses, give a unique possibility to physicians for investigating self-perception in people with psychological, psychiatric or neurologic disturbances.