Robert Qualters: Autobiographical Mythologies

Self-Portraits

selF-PoRtRaIts 120 SELF-PORTRAITS R obert Qualters joins a long line of artists who have produced a series of self-portraits, including Rembrandt and Van Gogh, who both painted themselves throughout their lives, and artists ranging from Albrecht Dürer to Cindy Sherman and Yasumasa Morimura, who have created self-portraits based not on a physical likeness but on characteristics , traits, and/or desires. As Qualters relies on autobiography in many of his paintings, he includes both types of self-portraits. His recent autobiographical work A Life, for example, includes a recognizable half face of the artist, but he also appears with his late wife as cartoon figures at different stages of the story. In another work that is a memorial to Joanne, Polish Hill Window, they are recognizable despite being partially hidden behind colorful curtains that flank the window with a view to the church across the street. Joanne’s bright red hair, an oft used identifying marker, also appears in Orangutan Dreams, hinting that Joanne could be seen as the Earth mother of that painting , while the hairy ape could be seen as Bob’s alter ego. Qualters and his wife show up in many compositions, playing a variety of roles, with Joanne appearing in a 1985 work, The Shadow of Night, as a witness to the busy evening scene with a man watching his lover get on a bus. In a similar manner, the artist pops up in many of the images, and in fact, he becomes the witness himself in Winter Light (1998). With a gesture similar to that of Auguste Rodin ’s The Thinker, the artist seems to be thinking or dreaming, miles away from the scene in the background. Yet the scene is quite realistic, with recognizable elements such as the Manchester Bridge and a detailed industrial building. The diagonals of these structures balance the composition, and the curve of the artist’s head echoes the span of the bridge. It is a cold, cloudy day with snow on the ground, the roofs, and the bridge. What at ▶ Polish Hill Window, 2010 Oil on canvas, 56 × 52 in. Collection of the artist SELF-PORTRAITS 123 first glance appears to be a dreary day, with the artist in a pensive, perhaps dark mood, is, at closer inspection, a very colorful scene. As usual, Qualters used a full array of color, with the pinks, purples, and yellows in a pastellike sky, the stronger rosy red in the foreground fence, and the blues and greens in his own face, all of which contrast with the snow and the artist’s white hair. When talking about this work, Qualters said, “not dead yet,” letting us know that he is most likely thinking about mortality. In the much earlier East Liberty Bus Station (1984), Bob walks across the pedestrian bridge beside a younger guy, the son of a friend who reminds the artist of himself at a younger age. The artist, wearing a striped shirt and a cap, is easily recognized with his beard and glasses. These two foreground figures form the focal point and complete a composition complicated with horizontal and vertical architectural supports, a coffered ceiling, and several screens through which you see ◀ The Shadow of Night, 1985 Oil on canvas, 54 × 68 in. Collection of Donna Kell and Michael Graybrook the buses, the Highland Building, and the East Liberty Presbyterian Church, in the neighborhood where he used to have a studio. The complexity of the space, with all the angles and the patterns of the screen and the light and shadow, delighted the artist, and the scene is similar to the windowed pedestrian bridge in January Thaw (1987) from the same time period. This work is much more organized, with repeating patterns of the buildings, the patchwork floor of the bridge, and the rectangles of color on the streets below. East Liberty Bus Station, however , is a more personal work, and the artist added a series of texts at the bottom. At first, he concentrates on memory, “I had a studio here in 1959 where the Pat buses stop now,” and then the passage of time “Stop, Stop, my wheel! Too soon, too soon / The noon will be afternoon, / Too soon today will be yesterday.” Some of the other texts read: “Temperament without a tongue, and the inventor of the game” ▴ East Liberty Bus Station, 1984 Oil on canvas, 48 × 84 in. Collection...