Four Notes about Self Portraits:
- Kenwood House, London, “Self Portrait with Two Circles” by Rembrandt. The Dutch painter stood in front of the canvas in Amsterdam in his last years of life and looked into his own eyes. Now, I am the one standing in front of that same canvas, and Rembrandt is looking straight into my eyes. There is truth in his eyes, and something broken but still proud, and there’s compassion and there’s pain. I’m trying not to turn my eyes from this look. Rembrandt wrote a visual letter to himself in Amsterdam, but for one hour in London, 350 years later, his letter is addressed to me.
- It seems like these days we all make Self Portraits regularly with our smartphones. But in most cases, I think a Selfie and a Self Portrait are very different. A Selfie looks out, while a Self Portrait turns within. The Selfie is a mirror, the Self Portrait – a window.
- Sometimes, when I’m speaking on the phone or waiting for the kettle to boil, I doodle with my pen, mostly drawing faces. Usually, nothing happens, but from time to time – suddenly – someone looks at me from the paper. I look at him, and he looks back at me, and now what? I can’t just crumple that piece of paper and throw it into the garbage. There’s someone there, and I need to make him a place, to listen to his story.
- And sometimes I’m doodling and suddenly someone looks at me from the paper, and that someone is me.
Ori Elon is an Israeli writer who co-created and wrote the drama series “Shtisel.”
