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Self-Portrait and Autobiography

A painting in earth tones features numerous stick-figure drawings that evoke cave drawings. The lines of the drawings are rendered in bright pastels, and the figures rise up the canvas on a zig-zagging line. Green and light-gray smokiness proliferates.

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  • A painting in earth tones features numerous stick-figure drawings that evoke cave drawings. The lines of the drawings are rendered in bright pastels, and the figures rise up the canvas on a zig-zagging line. Green and light-gray smokiness proliferates.

Date:

1948

Artist:

Alice Rahon
French, active Mexico, 1904–1987

About this artwork

Alice Rahon represented herself in this composition with a pallete in hand, standing atop a series of ascending switchbacks lined with abstracted depictions of animals, people, mountains, and trees. The self-portrait—one of just two the artist created—alludes to her itinerant lifestyle and her journey to becoming a painter. Originally a Surrealist poet based in Paris, Rahon left France in 1939 for Mexico City, where she took up painting as well as sculpture. Her fascination with the cultures and landscapes of Mexico led her to develop a style inspired by Paleolithic cave art. This work’s shimmering surface is composed of materials sourced from nature, including sand and volcanic ash, further grounding it in the place where it was created.

Status

On View, Gallery 396

Department

Modern Art

Artist

Alice Rahon

Title

Self-Portrait and Autobiography

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1948

Medium

Oil and sand on canvas

Inscriptions

Inscribed verso: Alice Rahon / Mexico 48 / “autoretrato con autobiografia”

Dimensions

73.6 × 55.9 cm (28 × 22 in.)

Credit Line

Wirt D. Walker Endowment, Major Acquisitions Centennial, Luella Thomas, Samuel A. Marx, Simeon B. Williams Endowment, and Maurice D. Gelleher funds

Reference Number

2020.249

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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