Exhibition of the week From Selfie to Self-expression
Saatchi Gallery, London SW3 (020-7811 3070, www.saatchigallery.com). Until 30 May
It requires just four actions and less than five seconds to take a selfie, said Kate Samuelson in Time magazine. Small wonder, then, that we collectively take around 93 million of them worldwide every day. The selfie is often condemned as a narcissistic phenomenon, but as a new exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery suggests, it may just be the latest chapter in the rich history of selfportraiture. The show brings together hundreds of exhibits, tracing the story of self-representation from the Old Masters to the present day. Reproductions of self-portraits by artists as diverse as Velázquez, Lucian Freud and Andy Warhol are presented alongside famous contemporary selfies, such as the infamous “viral” image of David Cameron, Barack Obama and the then Danish PM, Helle Thorning-schmidt, snapping themselves at Nelson Mandela’s funeral. Ultimately, the exhibition poses a timely question: are selfies “merely an inane form of self-promotion” – or can they be considered as art in their own right?
Not on this evidence, said Harry Mount in the Daily Mail. There is a big difference between a great self-portrait and a selfie – “namely skill”. The show begins with photographic copies of selfportraits by the likes of Rembrandt and van Gogh – obviously, “not a patch on the real thing” – and only gets worse. Pictures of stars such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie being forced into selfies by fans involve no talent, and are interesting solely for the “deadened, hunted look” in the celebrities’ eyes. Elsewhere, artists such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin seek to turn selfies into art by adding a “pinch of vulgarity and outrage”. But images of Emin “pressing wodges of £5 notes against her groin”, and Hirst grinning next to a severed human head, are “just horrible”. This is undoubtedly “the most depressing exhibition I’ve been to in a long time”.
It’s not all bad, said Emily Spicer on Studiointernational.com. A highlight is the “surreal” work of artist Juno Calypso. In her 2015 video The Honeymoon Suite, Calypso stares into the multiple mirrors of a hotel bathroom, apparently “hypnotised” by an “exhausting desperation to feel beautiful”. There are a lot of interesting self-portraits here, said Matthew Collings in the London Evening Standard – from Nan Goldin’s photos of her battered face, to Cindy Sherman’s mocked-up Hollywood stills. The submissions from the public are inventive, too: there are people perched on skyscrapers, or dodging wild bulls. The show as a whole may be “knockabout”, but it’s “pretty knockout”.