WHAT IS A SELF PORTRAIT?

Giotto (1266–1337) invented the individual, Warhol (1927–87) abolished her. And consequently, the renaissance and the idea of the subject died. The role of the artist shifted from that of the genius to become a vehicle of ideas in the spirit of Plato. The autonomous individual was transformed to an unromantic consumer of media and commodities.

Equally, the single human being is always identical as a raw material for an ever shifting cultural pressure. Identical but always different. The indivisibility of the individual and culture. The raw material is constant but the image of the ego shifts.

In this context, what is the significance of a self-portrait? Could it be seen as a contradiction, a paradox in the world of the post-renaissance? How does the viewer filter the artistic ego? Can an artist convey the idea his own beingness?

These are questions Göran Ahlgren addresses. His ambition is to thin the layer between the idea and the viewer. No craftsmanship blinds or masks. Even the mechanized shallow clarity of the photograph is degraded, dissolved in the same haze as the autonomous individual. But by the gaze, the soul drives through the illusion of being.

Pierre Menard

When we discuss a work of art or an art tradition, we are discussing a phenomenon which exists in an integral relationship with the entire complex of human social and historical forces defining the development of that work or tradition.