Art talk: On Selfies with Sinziana Ravini and Mikael Olsson

"Self-portraiture has a long and meandering history. Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo, Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Sarah Lucas, Amalia Ullman, Rafia Santana. If portraiture can be categorised as a social encounter, the self-portrait is a perceptual encounter with one’s own body, and all the physical constraints that such an act entails. The physiological impossibility of seeing oneself has fascinated artists for centuries and inspired great works that play with these limitations. The self-portraits of Mikael Olsson – which are actually demi-self-portraits, as they only capture the top of his head and his bespectacled eyes – are a brilliant entry into the mirror halls of art history." The text is from Mikael Olsson´s new book Olsson Mikael, and is written by the psychoanalyst and art critic Sinziana Ravini.