The new exhibition at the
Scottish National Portrait Gallery,
Facing the World, looks at the rudimentary role of self-portraits and the presentation of the self. From the cutting gaze of Rembrandt, who painted more self-portraits than any other artist of his time, to Ai Weiwei’s Instagram images, which range from bright orange bicycle-shaped glasses to underwear selfies captured through a toilet flush. With around 140 works on display, the exhibition brings together paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, time-based media, sculpture and interactive installations – it shows artists we know in a gleaming new light alongside artists we may be less familiar with. Imogen Gibbon, chief curator and deputy director for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and Michael Clarke, director of the Scottish National Gallery, spoke to us about selfies as a means of communication, the common themes of the self-portraits on show and which 17th century artist they think would be a #nofilter kind of guy