Who Are They? Who Am I? is an expansive exhibition drawn from the museum’s collection of portraits and self-portraits of and by a wide range of artists. These include stage and screen actors, authors, composers, dancers, fashion designers, filmmakers, musicians, and visual artists from the seventeenth to twenty-first centuries depicted in a variety of media including paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, and prints. Artworks vary from highly resolved formal sittings, to informal and intimate sketches, to conceptual portraits. They are insightful, revealing information about the artists’ choices of a variety of visual approaches to capture the subjects’ appearance, mood, and character. They also contain elements indicative of their time and environment, and sometimes even tell stories.
Who Are They? Often artists depict other artists, revealing their relationships to one another and hinting at larger aspects of artists’ connections, communities, and influences. Some works in this category listed by artist/subject include:
Richard Avedon/Herman Wouk | Peggy Bacon/Marsden Hartley | Leonard Baskin/Odilon Redon Brassaï/Henri Matisse | Robert Capa/Pablo Picasso and Françoise Gilot | William Claxton/Chet Baker and Liliane Rovère | Thomas Cornell/Michelangelo | Eileen Darby/Lee J. Cobb | Walker Evans/James Agee | Ralph Bartlett Goddard/Charles Dickens | Philippe Halsman/Marilyn Monroe Yousuf Karsh/Georgia O’Keeffe | James Lechay/Beauford Delaney | Jacques Lubin/Jacques Callot George Platt Lynes/Marsden Hartley | Linda McCartney/Bob Dylan | John Minihan/Samuel Beckett | Barbara Pollack/William Pope.L | Man Ray/Marsden Hartley | Eli Reed/Goldie Hawn Arthur Rothstein/John Marin | David Seltzer/Jack Kerouac | Rena Small/Jean-Michel Basquiat Steven Speliotis/John Cage | Joyce Tenneson/Dame Judi Dench | Weegee/Eddie Cantor Marguerite Zorach/Harry Hathaway
Who Am I? In self-portraits, artists are often drawing out autobiographical or psychological aspects of themselves others might not depict. Artists this category include:
Sigmund Abeles | Jack Beal | Joseph Beuys | Ashley Bryan | Eugène Devéria | Fritz Eichenberg Robert Farber | Robert Feintuch | Donna Ferrato | Samuel Fosso | Jay Gould | Lily Harmon Frances Hodsdon | Brad Kahlhamer | Susan Moldenhauer | John O’Reilly | Rona Pondick Claire Seidl | Hollis Sigler | Kiki Smith | Joyce Treiman | Claire Van Vliet | Jacques Villon | Xu Bing
The majority of works in Who Are They? Who Am I? are in the collection because of the generosity of our donors–either as direct gifts or as acquisitions made with endowment funds. The Museum of Art is deeply grateful to the many donors who recognize the value of the museum and its collection.
To read the biography of each artist and subject in the show, click here.
John Minihan, Samuel Beckett, London, 1980, gelatin silver print, 10 x 9 in., Gift of Robert Flynn Johnson in memory of Dr. Robert Andrew Johnson, class of ’36, 2019.6.9William Claxton, Chet Baker and Lillian Rovère, ca. 1955 (printed 1987), gelatin silver print, 10 1/8 x 8 1/8 in., Gift of Robert Flynn Johnson in memory of Dr. Robert Andrew Johnson, class of ’36, 2019.6.12Rona Pondick, from the series The Metamorphosis of an Object, 2009, archival pigment print, 15 3/4 x 13 in., Bates College Museum of Art purchase with the Elizabeth A. Gregory MD ’38 Fund, and the Jean LeMire Payne ’53 Museum Fund, 2017.12.1.aClaire Van Vliet, Self Portrait in a Mirror, 1960, woodcut, 15 x 14 in., Gift of the Artist, 2018.1.8James Lechay, Beauford Delaney, 1941, oil on canvas, 30 x 16 in., Bates College Museum of Art purchase with the Synergy Fund Diversify the Collections Program, 2021.7.1Eileen Darby, Lee J. Cobb in the play “Death of a Salesman”, 1948, silver gelatin print, 14 x 11 in., Gift of Robert Flynn Johnson, 2021.11.9Steven Speliotis, John Cage at 80, 1992, silver gelatin print, 14 in., Bates College Museum of Art, Gift of Robert Flynn Johnson, 2021.11.11Donna Ferrato, Enlightened, Lorain, OH, 1976, photograph, 25 x 30 in., Gift of Karan and Elizabeth Jain, 2018.17.8Yousuf Karsh, Georgia O’Keefe, 1956, silver gelatin print, 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in., Gift of Robert Flynn Johnson in Memory of Robert Andrew Johnson, 2009.2.1Joyce Wahl Treiman, The Joker and Me, 1985, oil on canvas, 43 3/4 x 43 3/4 in., Bates College Museum of Art Purchase with the Dorothy Stiles Blanfort ’31 Fund, 2019.3.1Philippe Halsman, Marilyn Monroe, 1962, silver gelatin print, 10 x 8 in., Gift of Robert Flynn Johnson in memory of Minna Flynn Johnson, 2007.2.1Robert Feintuch, Feet Up, 2013, polymer emulsion on honeycomb panel, 23 3/4 x 19 in., Bates College Museum of Art purchase with gift from Leander W. Smith, 2014.1.1Arthur Rothstein, John Marin in his Studio, Hoboken, New Jersey, 1949, photograph, 10 3/4 x 13 3/4 in., Gift of Frederick M. Myers ‘86, 1986.12.27Samuel Fosso, Self Portrait, 1977, silver gelatin print, 24 x 20 in., Bates College Museum of Art purchase in part with funds from the Jean LeMire Payne ’53 Fund, 2004.16.2Edward Steichen, Jack Nicholson as the Joker, ca. 1989, Agfa-chrome resin coated print, 10 x 8 in., Gift of Robert Flynn Johnson in memory of Dr. Robert Andrew Johnson, 2018.4.10Fritz Eichenberg, The Dream of Reason, n.d., wood engraving, 9 x 7 in., Bates College Museum of Art purchase with the Dr. Robert A. and Minna F. Johnson ’36 Art Acquisition Fund, 2015.8.6Jacques Villon, Self Portrait, n.d., ink on paper, 10 7/8 x 8 1/4 in., Bates College Museum of Art purchase, 2021.10.1Joseph Beuys, Joseph Beuys, fur Tobias Bach, 1972, postcard with red ink, 5 3/4 x 4 in., Bates College Museum of Art Purchase, 2022.5.1Sigmund Abeles, Self-Identification, 1964, etching and soft ground, 8 x 6 in., Gift of the Artist, 1995.5.24Arthur (Usher) Fellig “Weegee”, Edie Cantor (Distortion), ca. 1955-60, vintage gelatin silver print, 10 x 8 in., Gift of Robert Flynn Johnson in memory of Minna Flynn Johnson, 2007.2.4Claire Seidl, Porch Dinner, gelatin silver print, 19 7/8 x 16 in., Bates College Museum of Art purchase with the Abraham and Bella Margolis Fund, and the Dorothy Stiles Blankfort ’31 Fund, 2014.10.1Sam McMillan “The Dot Man”, World Peace and Harmony, n.d., oil on wood, 18 x 22 in., Jane Costello Wellehan Endowment Fund, 2019.4.32Leonard Baskin, Camille Corot, n.d., wood engraving, 7 1/4 x 4 5/8 in., Gift of John and Janet Marquess, 1989.8.1.bDavid Seltzer, Untitled (Kerouac), 2011, print, 13 1/4 x 18 7/8 in., Gift of Burt Sheaffer, 2012.8.4
