The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 19, 2024
Self-Portrait (with Head)
1988
(British, 1920–2003)
Image: 133.7 x 100.5 cm (52 5/8 x 39 9/16 in.)
© 1988 John Coplans
Location: not on view
Description
In 1979, while serving as director of the Akron Art Museum, John Coplans worked after hours on photographs of his own feet, hands, and face. This preoccupation led him to make portraits of his own nude body. He made these images in his studio, posing himself under lights against a blank white wall, while observing the positions of his body on a video monitor. When he found what he wanted, a studio assistant made an exposure on Polaroid negative film. The process continued in the darkroom, where Coplans refined the image by cropping and then printing it in large scale. In this self-portrait, he joined his aging, sagging body with that of a youthful female, creating a humorous composite figure.- Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. Reproduced: P. 133
- CMA, November 20,1996 - February 2, 1997: "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art."Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997).
- {{cite web|title=Self-Portrait (with Head)|url=false|author=John Coplans|year=1988|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1991.321