Chuck Close. Self-Portrait (Yellow Raincoat). Archival Watercolor Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Rag paper. Contessa Gallery. Click to inquire.

In each monthly edition, Vanity Fair closes with its Proust Questionnaire, a deeply prophetic interview with a celebrity. Posing such questions as “What is your idea of perfect happiness” and “What is your current state of mind,” each interviewee’s profound responses almost lose their seriousness with the accompanying caricature.  While in art there is no literal text explaining the artist’s decisions or “state of mind,” brushstroke and color- line and silhouette- often expound the artist’s intentions.  

Thus, some of their audience’s favorite works are self-portraits, the deepest production of the artist’s genius, a personal revelation which entices viewers just as much as if they divulged in the Proust Questionnaire.  Whether representing themselves figuratively, metaphorically, fragmented, or unfinished; an artist’s self-portrait can surmount to their most interesting works;  their techniques and practices perhaps finally visualizing their most difficult subject.  

R.B. Kitaj. Self Portrait as a Mondrian, 2003. Leslie Sacks Fine Art. Click to inquire.

Jules Pages. "Self Portrait."  Oil on board. George Stern Fine Arts. Click to inquire. 

Mary Abbott.  Untitled (Self-Portrait). Oil on linen. Vincent Vallarino Fine Art. Click to inquire. 

How would these artists (or you) answer the questionnaire?