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Art Criticism Spr 2007
Ben Sage 4/23/07
Art Education 367.02 -
Critique 1
“Self-Portrait” by Glen Ligon
No one is truly comfortable with how they look from the back. We see our frontal reflection every day and work meticulously to make ourselves handsome. The back of our head is usually an afterthought. An artist who took a closer look at the back of his head is Glenn Ligon. Mr. Ligon is a contemporary artist recently featured in The Wexner Center for the Arts. His exhibits utilize dozens of different media and reflect many aspects of the author’s life. Glenn was born on April 20, 1960, in the Bronx, New York. While he was too young to be a proactive member of the civil rights movement of the 60’s, it became a source of inspiration for his artwork. It was the time period after this, when America had a fresh new look of desegregation, that Glenn draws much of his inspiration as an artist. A specific piece that peaked my interest was his “Self-Portrait” done in 1996. Like some of his other works, this one was done using black and white dots on a silk screen. The “Self-Portrait” was completed approximately the middle of his career; therefore it is an ideal example to reflect on the artist’s body of work as a whole. This work of art is a complete example of how Glenn Ligon has struggled throughout his life with his racial and sexual identity. This photo illustrates this because of the pose selected, the ambiguity of the title, and the blurry techniques of the silk-screen. The piece is approximately four feet tall by three feet wide. Much of the canvas is taken up by a bald man’s head. The figure is positioned perfectly symmetric. The middle aged male has inconspicuous shoulders, a muscular neck, unremarkable ears, and shiny dome. My initial instinct was that the figure was of African American decent. Shortly thereafter, I realized that because the picture is black and white only and we have no other clues such as facial features, we as a viewer do not really know for sure if the man is Black or white. The best suggestion I could come up with is that the man’s skin tones are clearly darker than the background. While doing a great job of obscuring the identity of the subject, Ligon’s pose also is able to put the viewer in the same perspective as the man in the photo. In a sense, we are able to walk a mile in his shoes. When we get there, it is a much harder life than our own. Being a gay black man in American society, like Glenn Ligon, is not an easy task. This is especially true in the early 1980’s when Glenn was attending an almost exclusively white college. Questions about the subject’s identity are further exacerbated by the title. From my brief research, this is the only self portrait attempted by the artist. By no means is this work of art what is expected of a self-portrait. We see the back of a man’s head. The title speaks volumes about what the author thinks of himself. Could he be feeling shame? Does he have a terrible scar on his face? I realize that a forward facing figure would be unexceptional and boring. Ligon is not the first artist to use a unique technique for a self portrait. It has been suggested that Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” (c. 1503-1507) is actually a self-portrait. It is possible that both artists struggled to a certain degree with their sexual identities. Through this work, the artist is making a statement about his sexual practices. By showing the back of his head, the viewer is in the position of Glenn’s lover. The single aspect of this work making it not simply a picture of the back of a head is the artist’s technique of silk-screening or screen-printing. Up close, the picture is simply various sizes of black and white dots. As the viewer moves further away, the dots are slowly lost in obscurity, but the image retains a blurry overcoat. This procedure strengthened the artist’s messages of confusion and disillusionment with American society. The back of our head (contradictory to the back of our hand) is unknown and vastly unexplored. To some extent we are scared of it and no one is truly confident with how they look from the back. Glenn Ligon is an individual who is tremendously confused with himself from the front and all sides. He is able to convey with the viewer in the work of art “Self-Portrait” a feeling of shared awkwardness. Ligon is a member of an American society that has shunned and ridiculed him for who he is: who he is and who he was born.
Art Education 367.02 -
Critique 1
“Self-Portrait” by Glen Ligon
No one is truly comfortable with how they look from the back. We see our frontal reflection every day and work meticulously to make ourselves handsome. The back of our head is usually an afterthought. An artist who took a closer look at the back of his head is Glenn Ligon. Mr. Ligon is a contemporary artist recently featured in The Wexner Center for the Arts. His exhibits utilize dozens of different media and reflect many aspects of the author’s life. Glenn was born on April 20, 1960, in the Bronx, New York. While he was too young to be a proactive member of the civil rights movement of the 60’s, it became a source of inspiration for his artwork. It was the time period after this, when America had a fresh new look of desegregation, that Glenn draws much of his inspiration as an artist. A specific piece that peaked my interest was his “Self-Portrait” done in 1996. Like some of his other works, this one was done using black and white dots on a silk screen. The “Self-Portrait” was completed approximately the middle of his career; therefore it is an ideal example to reflect on the artist’s body of work as a whole. This work of art is a complete example of how Glenn Ligon has struggled throughout his life with his racial and sexual identity. This photo illustrates this because of the pose selected, the ambiguity of the title, and the blurry techniques of the silk-screen. The piece is approximately four feet tall by three feet wide. Much of the canvas is taken up by a bald man’s head. The figure is positioned perfectly symmetric. The middle aged male has inconspicuous shoulders, a muscular neck, unremarkable ears, and shiny dome. My initial instinct was that the figure was of African American decent. Shortly thereafter, I realized that because the picture is black and white only and we have no other clues such as facial features, we as a viewer do not really know for sure if the man is Black or white. The best suggestion I could come up with is that the man’s skin tones are clearly darker than the background. While doing a great job of obscuring the identity of the subject, Ligon’s pose also is able to put the viewer in the same perspective as the man in the photo. In a sense, we are able to walk a mile in his shoes. When we get there, it is a much harder life than our own. Being a gay black man in American society, like Glenn Ligon, is not an easy task. This is especially true in the early 1980’s when Glenn was attending an almost exclusively white college. Questions about the subject’s identity are further exacerbated by the title. From my brief research, this is the only self portrait attempted by the artist. By no means is this work of art what is expected of a self-portrait. We see the back of a man’s head. The title speaks volumes about what the author thinks of himself. Could he be feeling shame? Does he have a terrible scar on his face? I realize that a forward facing figure would be unexceptional and boring. Ligon is not the first artist to use a unique technique for a self portrait. It has been suggested that Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” (c. 1503-1507) is actually a self-portrait. It is possible that both artists struggled to a certain degree with their sexual identities. Through this work, the artist is making a statement about his sexual practices. By showing the back of his head, the viewer is in the position of Glenn’s lover. The single aspect of this work making it not simply a picture of the back of a head is the artist’s technique of silk-screening or screen-printing. Up close, the picture is simply various sizes of black and white dots. As the viewer moves further away, the dots are slowly lost in obscurity, but the image retains a blurry overcoat. This procedure strengthened the artist’s messages of confusion and disillusionment with American society. The back of our head (contradictory to the back of our hand) is unknown and vastly unexplored. To some extent we are scared of it and no one is truly confident with how they look from the back. Glenn Ligon is an individual who is tremendously confused with himself from the front and all sides. He is able to convey with the viewer in the work of art “Self-Portrait” a feeling of shared awkwardness. Ligon is a member of an American society that has shunned and ridiculed him for who he is: who he is and who he was born.
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