16.8.20 Are self portraits narcissistic?
Obsession
Frankenstein’s research is all consuming, so much so that he neglects his fiancé, his family, his friends and his other training. He says ‘Two years…I was engaged, heart and soul, in the pursuit of some discoveries that I hoped to make’ (in Shelley, 1818, p49) He describes it as ‘ardour’ (ibid.) He says he himself was ‘animated by an almost supernatural animation’, referencing the animation he was hoping for (Shelley, 1818, p50). His description of starting work is also poignant:
‘No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me on, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success’… ‘a resistless and almost frantic impulse’ (Shelley 1818, p52-53) I recognise this obsession when I’m at work, creating my own Frankenstein’s monsters.
But is this obsession narcissistic?
Fine artist Pauline Goyard was questioned about self obsession so began to look at narcissism. She says she started to take self portraits because she ‘wanted to learn photography’ and she was available as a model whenever she needed one but she soon realised she had ‘A LOT of things that I wanted to tell in my pictures, and it was my story, so it had to be me in the pictures…So this is how I started my « self-portrait therapy »’ Original emphasis (2019).
I feel similarly. What is it about my story that’s so important and why do I think it will interest other people? I mostly make art for myself, but I want to share it with an audience too. I think (hope) that other people will be interested because of the commonalities we all share. This is one reason that I’m reluctant to sell my work or to make commissions. It’s all about me!
Does portraying the unflattering, dark or complex parts of my self make it less narcissistic? Goyard makes the point that Rembrandt, for example, explores techniques in his self portraits so represents himself as he presumably was, and old man, with many stereotypically unflattering features. He almost certainly wouldn’t have been accused of being narcissistic!
I like Goyard’s conclusion ‘Just do it, people won’t judge you, it’s normal as a creator to explore different things … if you don’t like the pictures, remember no one has to see them in the end, you only share what you really want to share’ (2019).
Although, I suspect that some people will judge me. And it’s also true that I only need to share things that I want to share. It reminds me of a Louise Bourgeois exhibition I saw a number of years ago, entitled something like ‘Louise Bourgeois: a woman without secrets’. I have always felt that actually she ‘shared’ just one ‘secret’, obsessively and in great depth, but was very private about everything else. In this way I think that self portraiture can protect parts of my self and people close to me. Or as my son said when he started at a secondary school where he knew no one ‘It’s brilliant mum, I can reinvent myself’. Similarly, I can be whoever I want to be in my self portraits. They can be based on reality, neurosis, fantasy and imagination or all of the above!
Reassuringly artist Nick Grove says of self portraiture: ‘It’s essential to keep practising if you want to improve’ (in McVeigh, 2019). And that’s just as well, as I intend to keep practising!
Goyard, P. (2019) Are self portraits narcissistic? Available at: https://www.paulinegoyard.com/articles//are-self-portraits-narcissistic (Accessed 16 August 2020)
McVeigh, R. (1999) The art of self portraiture Available at: https://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/about-us/blog/art-self-portraiture (Accessed 29 July 2020)
Searle, A. (2015) Me me meme: artists’ selfies paint the full spectrum of self-obsession Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jan/23/self-turner-contemporary-margate-review-artists-selfies-painting (Accessed 16 August 2020)
Shelley, M (1818) Frankenstein London: Penguin
Obsession
Frankenstein’s research is all consuming, so much so that he neglects his fiancé, his family, his friends and his other training. He says ‘Two years…I was engaged, heart and soul, in the pursuit of some discoveries that I hoped to make’ (in Shelley, 1818, p49) He describes it as ‘ardour’ (ibid.) He says he himself was ‘animated by an almost supernatural animation’, referencing the animation he was hoping for (Shelley, 1818, p50). His description of starting work is also poignant:
‘No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me on, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success’… ‘a resistless and almost frantic impulse’ (Shelley 1818, p52-53) I recognise this obsession when I’m at work, creating my own Frankenstein’s monsters.
But is this obsession narcissistic?
Fine artist Pauline Goyard was questioned about self obsession so began to look at narcissism. She says she started to take self portraits because she ‘wanted to learn photography’ and she was available as a model whenever she needed one but she soon realised she had ‘A LOT of things that I wanted to tell in my pictures, and it was my story, so it had to be me in the pictures…So this is how I started my « self-portrait therapy »’ Original emphasis (2019).
I feel similarly. What is it about my story that’s so important and why do I think it will interest other people? I mostly make art for myself, but I want to share it with an audience too. I think (hope) that other people will be interested because of the commonalities we all share. This is one reason that I’m reluctant to sell my work or to make commissions. It’s all about me!
Does portraying the unflattering, dark or complex parts of my self make it less narcissistic? Goyard makes the point that Rembrandt, for example, explores techniques in his self portraits so represents himself as he presumably was, and old man, with many stereotypically unflattering features. He almost certainly wouldn’t have been accused of being narcissistic!
I like Goyard’s conclusion ‘Just do it, people won’t judge you, it’s normal as a creator to explore different things … if you don’t like the pictures, remember no one has to see them in the end, you only share what you really want to share’ (2019).
Although, I suspect that some people will judge me. And it’s also true that I only need to share things that I want to share. It reminds me of a Louise Bourgeois exhibition I saw a number of years ago, entitled something like ‘Louise Bourgeois: a woman without secrets’. I have always felt that actually she ‘shared’ just one ‘secret’, obsessively and in great depth, but was very private about everything else. In this way I think that self portraiture can protect parts of my self and people close to me. Or as my son said when he started at a secondary school where he knew no one ‘It’s brilliant mum, I can reinvent myself’. Similarly, I can be whoever I want to be in my self portraits. They can be based on reality, neurosis, fantasy and imagination or all of the above!
Reassuringly artist Nick Grove says of self portraiture: ‘It’s essential to keep practising if you want to improve’ (in McVeigh, 2019). And that’s just as well, as I intend to keep practising!
Goyard, P. (2019) Are self portraits narcissistic? Available at: https://www.paulinegoyard.com/articles//are-self-portraits-narcissistic (Accessed 16 August 2020)
McVeigh, R. (1999) The art of self portraiture Available at: https://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/about-us/blog/art-self-portraiture (Accessed 29 July 2020)
Searle, A. (2015) Me me meme: artists’ selfies paint the full spectrum of self-obsession Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jan/23/self-turner-contemporary-margate-review-artists-selfies-painting (Accessed 16 August 2020)
Shelley, M (1818) Frankenstein London: Penguin
