MFA’s ‘Elsa Dorfman’ and ‘Personal Space’ exhibits are powerful examples of the evolution of self-portraiture

BOSTON - Advertising and documentary photographer Elliott Erwitt once said, “The whole point of taking pictures is so you don’t have to explain things with words.”

He might have been describing two intriguing exhibits about portrait photography at the Museum of Fine Arts that have more in common than meets viewers’ eye.

Organized to complement the groundbreaking examination of British painter Lucian Freud’s self-portraits, “Elsa Dorfman: Me and My Camera” and the group show “Personal Space: Self-Portraits on Paper,” have used self-portraiture to express their varied identities in unpredictable ways.

Willie Cole’s photo etching “Man Spirit Mask” uses household items like a steam iron to create a mirror image of half his face marked with African scarification and ritualistic tattooing to forge a powerful meditation on race and identity.

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Artists, museum exhibition to commemorate 1st documented Africans in America

Fully honoring the diverse history of colonial America, is the 1619/2019 exhibition at the Muscarelle Art Museum in Williamsburg, Virginia. Featuring work by Sonya Clark, Nell Painter, Katrina Andry, Sedrick Huckaby, Preston Jackson, Delita Martin, Willie Cole, Letitia Huckaby, Bear Allison and others, the exhibition, which runs through January 26th, includes work from not only African American artists, but also Native American artists.

Very thought-provoking is the Dadaist-influenced reimagining of the ironing board in “Savannah, Dot, Fannie Mae, Queen, Anna Mae” by Willie Cole, a School of The Visual Arts graduate whose work often includes tools of domesticity. 

Form Design Studio and Lab Announces Willie Cole as its 2020 Artist in Residence

Form Design Studio and Lab at Express Newark announces the selection of Willie Cole as it’s 2020 Artist in Residence.

Willie Cole is a self-described “contemporary artist, perceptual engineer, ecological mechanic, transformer,” Willie Cole has been altering perceptions of household objects since the 1990s. He ingeniously transforms steam irons, ironing boards, hairdryers, and high-heeled shoes into powerful sculptures, installations, and works on paper. Mining his own African-American heritage, Cole creates work that celebrates African art and culture and confronts viewers with the painful history of slavery in America. He has concocted African masks out of high heels, sculptures of African fauna out of kitchen chairs, and slave ships out of iron marks. Guided by these objects, Cole uncovers the ramifications of their use, as he explains:

“The objects have a memory and history of their own. So if you have a slave, or just a domestic worker, people working for little money, their objects have a memory of that experience.”