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Self-Portrait - Image 1
Self-Portrait - Image 2

Kiki Smith

Self-Portrait

1995

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Kiki Smith

Self-Portrait

1995

Physical Qualities Gelatin silver print, Sheet: 354 x 278 mm. (13 15/16 x 10 15/16 in.) Image: 225 x 151 mm. (8 7/8 x 5 15/16 in.)
Credit Line Photography Fund
Object Number 1998.100
Forthright and unabashed, Kiki Smith presents herself bare-breasted as both sculptor and sculpture. Her plaster-spotted hands and studio clothes affirm her commitment to serious work while her head, concealed by papier-mâché or plaster, appears to be on its way to becoming a portrait bust. Wet material drips down from her neck and shoulders embellishing her female form. Smith has no use for the harmonious idealized proportions of classical art. Instead, she creates sculptures that reflect the bodies of actual women and offers them unedited for the viewer’s inspection. Known primarily as a sculptor, but also active as a printmaker, Smith works in materials as diverse as paper, wax, bronze, ceramic, glass, and aluminum. Here she has produced a photographic self-portrait that simultaneously evokes the substances and processes of her art-making in other media.
Kristen Hileman, BMA. "Seeing now: Photography Since 1960," February 20-May 15, 2011.

Inscribed: verso in black ink: "Kiki Smith 1996"

Artist

Kiki Smith

1953–2000

American, born Germany 1954
Meet Kiki Smith

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