Self-Portrait (Torso) (Primary Title)

Gregory Gillespie, American, 1936 - 2000 (Artist)

1975
American
oil and acrylic on wood panel
Place Made,United States
Overall: 30 1/4 × 24 3/4 in. (76.84 × 62.87 cm)
85.391
Not on view

"I hope to paint the body as it continues to wrinkle and sag and bulge and slide towards its own death. . . . Painting self-portraits is, no doubt, my way of dealing with the whole process." —Gregory Gillespie

Gillespie painted many self-portraits, recording his aging body and its physical flaws with brutal honesty. His exacting realism is perfectly suited to representing flesh as well as a need to be “real” with oneself, no matter how painful.

In Self-Portrait (Torso) Gillespie places himself within the tradition of Christ as the “Man of Sorrows”—the name given to iconic devotional images that generally show the resurrected Christ as a half-length figure with bleeding wounds. Although Gillespie similarly casts himself as martyr, his wounds are more psychological than physical.

Gift of Sydney and Frances Lewis
A Unique American Vision: The Paintings of Gregory Gillespie, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA, April 3 – May 15, 1999; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, June 12 – September 12, 1999; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA, October 8 – January 4, 2000

Gregory Gillespie: Self-Portraits, 1969 - 1991, Forum Gallery, New York, NY, January 9 – March 7, 1992

A Figurative Perspective: Recent Paintings and Sculpture from the Virginia Museum, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA, March 12 – May 21, 1989

Contemporary Art from the Virginia Museum, Muscarelle Museum, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, September 30 – November 15, 1987

Selections from the Sydney and Frances Lewis Collection in the VMFA, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE, March 29 – May 10, 1987

Three Approaches to Realism, Institute of Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, March 8 – April 24, 1983

Focus on the Figure: Twenty Years, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, April 14 – June 13, 1982

Real, Really Real, Super Real: Directions in Contemporary American Realism, San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX, March 1 – April 26, 1981; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN, May 19 – June 18, 1981; Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ, July 19 – August 26, 1981; Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, October 24 – January 3, 1982

American Figure Painting 1950 – 1980, Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA, October 17 – November 30, 1980

Artists Choice: Younger Artists, Artists’ Choice Museum, New York, NY, September 6 - 18, 1980

As we see Ourselves: Artists' Self Portraits, Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY, June 22 – August 5, 1979

Gregory Gillespie, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., December 22, 1977 – February 12, 1978

Gregory Gillespie Exhibition, Forum Gallery, New York, NY, November 13 – December 4, 1976

Frances Cohen Gillespie and Gregory Gillespie, University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, September 18 – October 13, 1976

Exhibition of Work by Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Honors and Awards, The American Academy of Arts and Letters and The National Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, NY, May 20 – June 13, 1976

Exhibition of Works by Candidates for Art Awards, The American Academy of Arts and Letters and The National Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, NY, March 8 – April 4, 1976
(Forum Gallery, New York), by 1975; Purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Sydney and Frances Lewis, Virginia, in November of 1976; Gift to Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA), Richmond, Virginia in December of 1985.
©artist or artist’s estate

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