A photograph of Turner Prize-winning artist Gillian Wearing (b. 1963) posed as Artemisia Gentileschi, the most celebrated female painter of the 17th century, is now on display on the Holburne’s staircase.
Wearing, who graduated from Goldsmiths College in 1990, is known for exploring the boundaries between private and public identity, fact and fiction. Working across video, photography, sculpture and painting, she often uses masks and disguise to examine the ways people present themselves to others.
The photograph comes from her ongoing Spiritual Family series, begun in 2008, in which Wearing adopts the guise of artists she admires. Here, she transforms herself into the Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, taking inspiration from Gentileschi’s Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (1638–39).
The work continues Wearing’s interest in identity and self-presentation, using the mask as a metaphor for the roles and performances that shape everyday life.
“This work draws fascinating parallels with the historic portraits that surround it at the Museum, illuminating how all are performative and demonstrations of self-fashioning.
Chris Stephens, Director of the Holburne
It continues our aim of bringing contemporary art into dialogue with the historical collection, creating new connections and ways of looking at both.”
The work is on loan from a private lender.