Self-portrait

Today it is our last Sunday with the collection of Museo Blaisten from Mexico. We hope you enjoyed our selections!  : )

Self-portraits are always transcendental questions, attempts to define that fiction of being that each and every one of us is. The artist finds herself reflecting alone with herself and with the painting, there is nothing but her internal jurisdiction and her intellectual or creative work. There is no narcissism but knowledge of being. In Rosa Rolanda's self-portrait, the orchid adorning her hairstyle is one of many common winks and minor references between her work and that of Frida Kahlo, particularly the portraits of Kahlo painted in the 1940s.

It is also a gloss to the girls that Covarrubias portrayed when they both traveled to the island of Bali in 1930, where this flower is common in women's personal grooming. On this occasion, Miguel Covarrubias's wife adds a curious detail to her painting: to the left of her face a fly has stopped on the wall. Rosa Rolanda is paraphrasing the legend of Giotto, whom Giorgio Vasari describes in his Lives as capable of such realism that he deceived the painter Cimabue into believing that there is indeed an insect on one of his canvases. But is it also possible that Rosa was going through some existential crisis? There is a certain seriousness and even sadness in the reflection of the mirror that she painted for us and this exercise of representation and self knowledge is an effort to cement an identity that threatens with fracturing.

Is this a defense mechanism where desires and feelings are consciously evaluated or the possibility of replacing them? Rosa and Miguel, a married couple of many years, had serious coexistence problems at the beginning of the 50s. It is a simple rhetorical strategy, trying to make two entities coincide in oneself; who used to be, and who is now. We would then have to pay attention to that idiosyncratic Mexican phrase: make a fly.

Because we just had our 9th birthday we want to give a spotlight to our new venture! We want to offer to you 9 masterpieces for our 9th birthday that you can buy as fine art prints! Their quality is so amazing that you can track every brush stroke made by the artist. We are also using papers and water-based inks of the best quality. You won't find anything like this in museum shops! Each is available in a limited edition of 100. You can see and read more about them here; we are also very curious about your feedback!  : ) 

P.S. In an act of defiance and rebellion, female artists used self-portraits to represent themselves as artists in their own rights. Here are the ten most famous ones.