Everything is self-portrait : Munch and Van Gogh in Saura s serial working. Munch : Van Gogh Conference Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 10 November 2015

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1 Everything is self-portrait : Munch and Van Gogh in Saura s serial working Munch : Van Gogh Conference Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 10 November 2015

2 The first I want to tell you is a curious story. A couple of weeks ago, I was taking a look at the catalogue of an exhibition of Goya. One of the exhibitions for the 250th anniversary of Goya s birthday, entitled Después de Goya. Una mirada subjetiva and curated by Antonio Saura in For the introduction, written by Saura, he chose two paintings to illustrate it. One: by Munch. The other one: by Van Gogh. So, Saura s interest in these two artists is very clear, and there is a special and real connection. Even more than I thought. Beyond expressionism, beyond the writings, beyond serial working. There is a very special connection. But, let s talk about self-portrait and serial working.

3 self-portrait: noun a person s portrait or description of himself dictionary.cambridge.org

4 A self-portrait, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, is a person s portrait or description of himself. When you describe yourself, you re telling someone how you are, how do you look like, where do you come from, where do yo go, which are your characteristics, and which are the features that define you. You are telling your own story.

5 self-portrait: noun a person s portrait or description of himself dictionary.cambridge.org

6 Antonio Saura, Self-portraits,

7 Antonio Saura tells his own story when he depicts himself in this Self-portraits series. In this example, from 1962 to 1990, he shows an evolution of himself. An evolution of his own story, and his own life.

8 Antonio Saura, Self-portrait, 1962 Antonio Saura, Self-portrait, 1990

9 From the first to the last.

10 Vincent van Gogh, Self-portraits,

11 He did it in the same way as Vincent Van Gogh. Saura wrote the face s hell about Van Gogh. The evolution of his face, of his facial expression, of his features, is the evolution of his particular background, his life. We can see, again, a progress.

12 Vincent van Gogh, Self-portraits, 1886 Vincent van Gogh, Self-portrait, 1889

13 Rembrandt, Self-portraits,

14 But Vincent learned it from an Old Master, Rembrandt. A master in depicting the human evolution, in telling a story through his self-portraits with sincerity and honesty.

15 Rembrandt, Self-portrait, 1630 Rembrandt, Self-portrait, 1669

16 Edvard Munch, Self-portraits,

17 Edvard Munch was another artist who strongly felt the need of telling his own story through his self-portraits. The evolution of his style, his way of look at the world, his techniques, and the progress of his moods. A way for knowing himself, to describe himself.

18 Edvard Munch, Self-portrait, 1882 Edvard Munch Self-portrait between clock and bed

20 So, we have here three artists who depict evolution and progress, who tell their own lifes, and who describe themselves through their self-portraits. The three, also, use furiously the expression. That s another point Saura is interested in. And, in one of his writings, he will connect this passion, this intensity, this furiously expression to the violence in the book La Familia de Pascual Duarte, by Camilo José Cela. Antonio Saura mentions two paintings by Van Gogh and one by Munch in an essay entitled El arte y el mal ( Art and evil ), part of another essay entitled Crimen y capricho ( Crime and whim ). But, that s another topic.

21 Antonio Saura about Rembrandt s self-portraits: Rembrandt fue testigo implacable de sí mismo ( Rembrandt was a ruthless witness of himself )

22 Let me come back to Rembrandt for a while, and let s take a look at one Saura s statement about Rembrandt s self-portraits: Rembrandt fue testigo implacable de sí mismo ( Rembrandt was a ruthless witness of himself ). There is an important point here: witness of himself. Saura tells us a painter is not only the principal actor of his life, the leading role, but also a spectator, an observer. They narrate their own stories because they are both actors and spectators, observers and observed. They are witnesses of their own progress. In other words, painting self-portraits is the same as writing an autobiography.

23 Antonio Saura about Rembrandt s self-portraits: Rembrandt fue testigo implacable de sí mismo ( Rembrandt was a ruthless witness of himself )

24 self-portrait = autobiography

25 But... all important things in our life make our autobiography. Not only our face, our look, our features, but also the objects around us, the moods we feel, the people we love and all our obsessions. If we repeat the objects, the moods, the people, the obsessions, we are depicting an evolution in the same way, we are telling our story. It s also autobiography.

Antonio Saura about his self-portraits: Al no referirse concretamente a un rostro

reflejarían de mí mismo, optando por este título equívoco.

( Not referring specifically to a certain face, and having come these paintings from

26 Antonio Saura about his self-portraits: Al no referirse concretamente a un rostro determinado, y habiendo surgido estas obras de mi propia mano, pensé que algo reflejarían de mí mismo, optando por este título equívoco. De todas formas, todo cuanto el pintor realiza es autorretrato. ( Not referring specifically to a certain face, and having come these paintings from my own hand, I thought they would reflect myself. Then, I chose this confuse title. Anyway, everything a painter makes is self-portrait. )

27 Antonio Saura wrote about his self-portraits: Al no referirse concretamente a un rostro determinado, y habiendo surgido estas obras de mi propia mano, pensé que algo reflejarían de mí mismo, optando por este título equívoco. De todas formas, todo cuanto el pintor realiza es autorretrato. ( Not referring specifically to a certain face, and having come these paintings from my own hand, I thought they would reflect myself. Then, I chose this confuse title. Anyway, everything a painter makes is self-portrait. ) In other words, the painter always creates a selfportrait regardless of the subject matter of a work.

28 Everything an artist makes is self-portrait. Antonio Saura

29 That s the essential statement. Everything a painter (or an artist) makes is self-portrait. Not only a face, not only their own face, but all they depict is self-portrait, specially the repeated motifs.

31 Because, as I said before, if artists repeat, they depict an evolution, they tell a story.

32 Progress in time + the same motif series series self-portraits

33 That s why Saura was interested in series. Because the serial working indicates progress in time with the same motif. And serial working means autobiography and self-portraits. Remember: Everything is self-portrait. And two of the most important influences in Saura s series were Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch. Other names, for instance, were Monet, Cézanne or Pollock.

34 Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers,

35 But, let s take a look at the some series by Van Gogh and Munch. Van Gogh was, according to Saura, a northern man with thirst for sun. Saura observed the sun on Van Gogh s sunflowers, and explained them as selfportraits. He wrote: Rembrandt and Van Gogh, when they depict themselves, they match the morphology of their faces with their basic structures of their own works. He adds later on the same text: Van Gogh becomes an exasperate and spiny sunflower.

36 Vincent van Gogh, Wheatfields,

37 The sunflowers, or his wheatfields series are, for Saura, Van Gogh himself, or in other words, Van Gogh s self-portraits. Van Gogh wrote to his brother in October 1882: For the great doesn t happen through impulse alone, and is a succession of little things that are brought together. Not alone but a succession. A progress. Like Whitman s quotation: When I give, I give myself

38 Edvard Munch, The sick child,

39 In Munch s work, it happens the same. Starting with The Sick Child and repeating his motifs over and over again throughout his life. His paintings are an autobiography. In words of Joseph Beuys: He constantly wanted to see if he could rediscover what had originally led to a painting and what had arisen from it, a kind of self-test. Self-portrait, a description of himself, self-test... different words for the same concept.

40 Edvard Munch, The kiss,

41 In Munch s words: Each new version adds in its own way to the feeling of the first impression. Here we can see addition and evolution. It is well-known, thanks to Jay Clarke and Gerd Woll, that Munch took into account commercial and practical considerations in repeating his motifs. But, above all, as Munch wrote, there were artistic purposes. In Munch s words: I have in fact often made copies of my paintings, but there was always progress.

42 Edvard Munch, Evening on Karl Johann, Edvard Munch, Angst,

43 Yes, progress as in Cézanne and Monet, but with a distinctive feature: While they seek alterations in the appearance of an object, Munch seeks subjective variations. And Saura will agree. I wanted to show these series together (Evening on Karl Johan and Angst/Anxiety) because Antonio Saura worked on the crowds in the same way Munch did. His models were Goya, Munch and Ensor. I presented last year in Oslo a paper about the crowds in Munch, Goya and Saura.

44 Antonio Saura, Multitudes,

45 There are a lot of converging points. I said in Oslo: if we don t finish the face, if we don t define the features in a face, we are removing its personality, and creating anonymous characters. This lack of individuality is what Goya, and then Munch and Saura, are interested in. The crowd is now a whole thing. It s a closed set of persons, of faces, of lines and brushstrokes that creates some kind of a face: an undefined face. A structural swarm moving forward, wrote Antonio Saura. The crowd moving forward towards the viewer, wrote Lasse Jacobsen about Munch. Movement, time, space, evolution.

46 Antonio Saura, Karl Johan Strasse I, 1985

47 So close was Saura to Munch s crowds that the Spanish painter made a tribute to the Norwegian in this painting and another one called Karl Johan Strasse II.

48 Antonio Saura, Imaginary portraits,

49 The concept of repetition in Saura s work is the same as in Munch or Van Gogh. They both wanted the same. By repetition, the depicted motif becomes some kind of self-portrait, a description of himself. Again, the evolution. The progress. The autobiography.

50 Antonio Saura, Remembrandt, 1973

51 Here, a tribute to Rembrandt. Remember: Rembrandt was a ruthless witness of himself.

52 Antonio Saura, Dora Maar, 1986

53 Or the Dora Maar series, a tribute to Picasso. Julián Ríos asked to Antonio Saura in 1991 Painting Dora Maar is, after all, like painting the rest of your work, isn t it? Saura answered: It s not Dora Maar anymore. It s another thing. Of course it s another thing. It s Saura itself. Everything is Saura. Everything is self-portrait.

54 Antonio Saura, Moi,

55 Antonio Saura, Imaginary portraits of Goya and Goya s dog,

56 And then, here comes the most important series in Saura s work. They are, in fact, two different series, but visually identical. Imaginary portraits of Goya, and Goya s dog. Saura wrote: Since I was a child, I have been fascinated by this extreme image.

57 Antonio Saura about Goya s dog: Y si el perro (...) fuese también un retrato (...) y, por qué no, un autorretrato del propio Goya transformado en perro? (...and, if the dog is also a portrait?...and, why not, a selfportrait of Goya himself, changed into a dog? ) No soy solamente un perro, sino también su propio autor y todos cuantos me contemplan, pues soy ante todo pintura ya que sin ella no existiría. ( I m not only a dog, but also his author and everyone who gazes at me. Because I m a painting, definitely, and without it I don t exist )

58 Antonio Saura about Goya s dog: Y si el perro (...) fuese también un retrato (...) y, por qué no, un autorretrato del propio Goya transformado en perro? (...and, if the dog is also a portrait?...and, why not, a self-portrait of Goya himself, changed into a dog? ) No soy solamente un perro, sino también su propio autor y todos cuantos me contemplan, pues soy ante todo pintura ya que sin ella no existiría. ( I m not only a dog, but also his author and everyone who gazes at me. Because I m a painting, definitely, and without it, I don t exist. So, the artist draws a curious conclusion: Goya himself is the dog. But the dog is also Saura and all of us, the beholders. The picture, then, loses its individuality and emerges as a universal icon.

60 Finishing, I come back to the same ideas: witness, evolution, progress, improvement, self-test, self-quotation, series, description of himself. Autobiography. From the first to the last. Three artists who tell us their lifes and describe themselves through their self-portraits and, above all, through their serial working.

61 Everything an artist makes is self-portrait. Antonio Saura

62 In fact, everything is self-portrait.

63 A great idea never dies. Edvard Munch

64 Or, in Munch s words: A great idea never dies.

III. Recommended Instructional Time: Two (2) 40 minute sessions

III. Recommended Instructional Time: Two (2) 40 minute sessions I. Title: Portraits Have Feelings II. Objectives: The students will Describe personal choices made in the creation of artwork. (VA.K.C.2.1) Produce artwork influenced by personal decisions and ideas. (VA.K.S.1.2)