Naturally every artist is inclined to paint himself for one reason or another. History of art points at so many examples of self-portraits that it is almost impossible to tell if there is an artist who hasn't actually made one. Just look at Van Gogh's dozens of versions of himself. Or think of Frida Khalo's numerous paintings of her own image. No matter what the function or purpose of the self-depiction might be, the self-portrait is an important part of the artist's growth.
The self-portrait task my students undertook was based on series of researches on the human body as a structure of geometrical shapes. The second stage involved a great deal of looking at cubist works and trying to interpret the link between the simplistic initial sketches and the simplified human figure recreated by the Cubists. The final stage of the task was to create a self-portrait using the language of Cubism and the geometrical structure. Leaving realism behind was a challenge for them, but the results were pretty inspiring.
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| Sketch by Polina Nikova |
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| Self-portrait by Ivan Maslyankov |
