Skip to main content

© 2011 Evan Penny / Courtesy Sperone Westwater, New York

Old Self: Portrait of the Artist as He Will (Not) Be. Variation #2

Larger than life-sized and hauntingly realistic, Evan Penny’s self portrait marries traditional sculpting processes with cutting edge technology. Using a 3-D scanner, Penny made digital scans of his body, created clay forms based on the scans, and then he manipulated these clay forms by hand. He cast the clay version in resin before adding pigment and other elements- such as his own hair- to the sculpture’s silicone surface. In this work, Penny attempts to transform the fleeting moment captured by photography into three dimensions. The artist suggests that we imagine ourselves through the lens of photography, even though we live our lives in three-dimensional space. Drawing on his experience as a special-effects artist for Hollywood films, he reimagines himself as an elderly man. By making himself look decades older, he created a self-portrait that manages to be both realistic and make-believe.

ArtistaEvan Penny(b. 1953)

Canadian, born 1953

Fecha2010
MedioSilicone, pigment, hair, fabric, and aluminum
Dimensiones33 7/8 x 29 7/8 x 23 1/4 in. (86 x 75.9 x 59.1 cm)
Línea de créditoCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2011.11
ClasificaciónSculpture
Procedenciato (Sperone Westwater, New York, NY); purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2011
En exhibiciónNo
Old Self: Portrait o…33.9 × 29.9 in.Tennis Ball2.7 in. diameter

This artwork's face covers about 139× the area of a tennis ball.Drawn to the same scale.

Old Self: Portrait of the Artist as He Will (Not) Be. Variation #2 by Evan Penny | Crystal Bridges