PAST EXHIBITION

It’s All About Me: California Artists’ Self-Portraits

May 3, 2008—August 17, 2008

This exhibition of fourteen paintings and photographs celebrates both the richness of California art over the last century and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s permanent collection.  Being one of the oldest art museums in California with a commitment to contemporary art, the collection of self-portraits by California artists has grown significantly over the years.



Artists have explored a wide range of approaches and assumed differing social stances. There is no one defining style or typical self image that defines this exhibition. Two works by Clarence Hinkle, a Santa Barbara artist, bracket the exhibition.  In his Self-Portrait with Bowler Hat, he plays the handsome, young art student, with a dash of bohemianism.  While in his last self—portrait, Today and Yesterday, which was painted when he was eighty, meditates on this youthful self-image and records his own decrepitude.

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