Artists unveiled

Young Chang

They make you wonder, these portraits of artists at the Orange County

Museum of Art’s South Coast Plaza location.

Could Chema Cobo, with his thought-provoking self-portrait showing a

mask and a distorted dancing figure, be shy?

Might Joseph Kleitsch, whose traditional self-portrait of a face and

upper torso that is set against a countryside scene, have been as

approachable as the guy next door?

Would David Hockney be the way he is had Picasso not come before him?

Hockney’s portrait, “Artist and Model,” suggests not. In this 1974

piece, the artist sits across from Picasso, who is drawing him in the

nude.

“It’s an interesting and witty play on who the artist is and who the

model is,” said Sarah Vure, curator at the Orange County Museum of Art.

“We’re looking at Hockney as Picasso’s model, but in fact Picasso is the

model that Hockney is emulating.”

The current exhibit at the museum’s South Coast Plaza gallery offers a

study, almost, on identity in 20th century art. Titled “Portrait of the

Artist,” the more than 25 pieces from the museum’s permanent collection

includes self-portraits, as well as portraits done by one artist of

another.

Vure curated the exhibit, which will come down Oct. 7, out of a

fascination with the portraiture genre.

“I think we all have a deep human need for connection,” she said.

“Therefore I find images of people very compelling. I think different

artists are trying to say different things in their self-portraits.”

Brian Langston, spokesman at the museum, agreed.

“These really involve looking beneath the skin, if you will, and

projecting something of the psychology and the inner nature as opposed to

the outer appearance of the sitter,” he said.

Arnold Mesches’ acrylic portrait of John Baldessari shows the

midsection of the pop artist’s face, every wrinkle, every strand of

facial hair clear and separate. Why Mesches chose to make the details so

obvious, and why the emphasis on each mustache hair, probably only

Baldessari’s successors know.

“He was looking to investigate how [Baldessari] felt,” Vure said, “And

the emotions of his sitters through the vigor of his brushwork. He was

creating a tension between the abstract, formal qualities of art and the

expressive, emotional aspect of depicting a human being.”

Blythe Bohnen’s self-portraits are tricky. You think you’re seeing one

thing and then you think you’re seeing another. They look alive, both

made to look as though they are moving vertically in the medium of

gelatin silver prints. They resemble a scene photographed in motion, the

camera possibly out of focus.

The question, how did Bohnen see herself, calls for a guessing game of

the most psychological kind.

“I just think that portraiture is really the most intimate and telling

form of the visual,” Langston said.

For the painter, as well as the sitter. Langston recently sat for a

portrait himself. For two hours he sat dead still while an artist drew

him. Then he went back and sat for another two hours while the artist

painted him.

“It was an old-fashioned experience for me,” Langston said. “It was

exciting yet calming. And then the experience of seeing what he saw was

just so fascinating.”

FYI

WHAT: “Portrait of the Artist”

WHEN: Through Oct. 7

WHERE: The museum’s satellite gallery in South Coast Plaza, 3333

Bristol St., Costa Mesa.

COST: Free

CALL: (949) 759-1122