Self-Portrait

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    Photo: Stephen Pitkin / Pitkin Studio
1987
Paint on wood
27.75 x 27.75 inches
Collection of
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation
Description

Throughout a thirty-five year career as an artist, Mose Tolliver produced numerous self-portraits ranging from realistic images of the artist on his crutches to imaginative, anthropomorphized abstractions. He altered his likeness with a frequency that suggests an acute level of self-awareness and a desire to explore the multiple—and sometimes contradictory—physical and personality traits that constitute an individual’s identity. —Lauren Palmor