The portrait today has the look of a “selfie,” that little vignette that affirms our presence in all the corners of the globe and which underscores our daily exploits.  Its short existence resonates well on social media, eager for constant renewal.  To not be forgotten, one must plaster the social canvas with our exaggerated smiles, our explosive joys, our forced eccentricities.  In these fleeting images of the temporary, the “I” exists only for a brief instant and must constantly reappear and be on display in order to perpetuate itself.  

What, then, is the relationship to oneself and to the space that surrounds us? 

In the past, the portrait was, in all respects, a class affair, an affirmation of one’s social status, a projection of acquired prosperity.  The patrons of the Middle Ages, who wore simple clothes and assumed humble postures on the outer panels of the diptychs and triptychs, shifted their representation to individual panels that reflected the humanistic spirit of the Renaissance.  The portrait left the church for the courts of Europe before taking refuge in bourgeoise homes and museums, where the celebration of the “I” bore witness to the perpetuity of hereditary, military, clerical, and political elites.