A self-portrait is never just a likeness. It’s a performance of identity — an act of telling — and it only works because someone else is there to witness it.

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Which makes the self-portrait a rather peculiar art form.
Every one invites you into a relationship with two different people: the person the artist wants you to see… and the one they’d rather keep hidden.

 

A unique three-way, to say the least.

 

In this online experience we explore eight of the most remarkable self-portraits ever made. Our journey begins around 1420 with a man who rose from nowhere to transform what a painting could do, and ends with a woman so bold and imperious that she became known as “the baroness with a paintbrush.”

 

The result is a tour full of invention, personality, and surprises.

 

Just like a great house party.

 

Face/Off is an online experience and a companion to Facetime: The Art of the Portrait, which explores portraiture in the museum.