Nurit Cederboum

I find myself conflicted with this title. Art is a subject I resonate with, painting perhaps less so than sculpting, but the concept of self-portraiture is certainly heavily present in sculpting as well, so I was excited to read The Art of Self-Research. This title covers the importance of the expression of self while also including some insights into not only the author's experiences with self-portraiture but also in other artists' works. For example, the display of self-portraits with the subject standing in the middle, surrounded, was an interesting interpretation of the idea of insight, but perhaps not much more.

I feel like this book didn't completely resonate with me in quite the way it should have because the author's interpretation of her own self-portraits is exclusive to her, and explaining it takes away from the perspective of someone else's interpretation. Of course, the artist has their own reasoning for doing the things they do, but there wasn't very much that I felt needed to be explained in that regard. For example, the description of painting a self-portrait on paper overlaid with typeface so certain words are visible over the lips, those words being the artists' expression, is interesting as a theme, but is in reality kind of obvious. I don't feel it was necessary to devote a chapter to something easily interpreted by looking at it.

I was given the paperback version of what was clearly an ebook, which wouldn't normally be a problem except that it seems to have been printed entirely in its ebook form with only slight modifications. There are links, files, and images in black and white while a book focused on art absolutely excels in colour. I'm curious of the decision to print this in its current form, but it looks good on my shelf regardless. I haven't tried the ebook format but it was definitely written with an interactive screen in mind.

The only other issue I have is the length of the book. Not necessarily because it doesn't cover a range of topics, because there is a lot of substance in here, but because the padding on the sentences can be a bit excessive. I know I do it too, as you can probably tell by reading my reviews, because excession is how some people deliver information. It's how I'm wired. The issue is when the sentences get away from the author and things tend to repeat, or words are added in succession that mean exactly the same thing. It's a "redundantly redundant" style to fill pages, but past that it's not bad.

I'll admit self-portraiture is an area I haven't really explored much in my own work for my own reasons, but I feel it's important to try in an effort to better learn who you are in your own style. I guess I didn't connect much with the idea of it being explained to me when all of the clues were in the pieces. Still, worth a read if you're looking for insight into your own journey of self-portraiture.

Thanks to Niv Publishing for this copy in exchange for an honest review, it was very much appreciated.… (plus d'informations)