Apr 02 2021 37 mins
The ‘Mods’ of late 1950s London loved Italian suits, tidy haircuts, espresso bars, Vespa scooters, and the latest American jazz.
The artists of this counterculture also loved to pose in front of their work. Inserting themselves in their creations was a way to reaffirm their newfound identity.
Art historian Thomas Crow writes about people posing in a new book titled The Hidden Mod in Modern Art: London, 1957–1969. In it, he describes the life of a few visual artists, Pauline Boty among them.
Boty posed with her paintings often. She was the artist and the art. She identified with her subjects, and she let the subjects identify her. The symbiosis wasn’t fortuitous. She made her own rules. Can we painters be both active subjects and objects at once? Well, of course we can.
In this collection, we will paint self-portraits holding one of our paintings, or more, maybe hiding behind them or covering them—a painting of us posing with a painting by us.
It’s time to become our own heroes.
If you'd like to view the paintings we talk about in this episode, watch the video format on our YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/y_F4nrBf-pY
The artists of this counterculture also loved to pose in front of their work. Inserting themselves in their creations was a way to reaffirm their newfound identity.
Art historian Thomas Crow writes about people posing in a new book titled The Hidden Mod in Modern Art: London, 1957–1969. In it, he describes the life of a few visual artists, Pauline Boty among them.
Boty posed with her paintings often. She was the artist and the art. She identified with her subjects, and she let the subjects identify her. The symbiosis wasn’t fortuitous. She made her own rules. Can we painters be both active subjects and objects at once? Well, of course we can.
In this collection, we will paint self-portraits holding one of our paintings, or more, maybe hiding behind them or covering them—a painting of us posing with a painting by us.
It’s time to become our own heroes.
If you'd like to view the paintings we talk about in this episode, watch the video format on our YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/y_F4nrBf-pY