Susanna Coffey
(New London, Connecticut, 1949 - )
Self Portrait (Blue Pall)
2002
Oil on panel
12 x 15 x 2 in. (30.5 x 38.1 x 5.1 cm)
Collection of the Akron Art Museum
Gift of The National Academy of Design, purchased under the auspices of the Henry Ward Ranger Fund
2004.50
More Information
Every year, the National Academy of Design in New York purchases works by living American artists and donates them to museums. In 2004, the Akron Art Museum was chosen to receive a gift from the academy and selected Coffey’s self-portrait, which strengthens our holdings in two areas: portraiture and contemporary realism. For two decades, Susanna Coffey has focused on painting her own image. In Self Portrait (Blue Pall), the tension in her face and the camouflage background suggest that she is in a problematic place. This was the first of many paintings in which Coffey comments on the anxiety she feels about the ongoing war in Iraq and her sense that war seems to play an increasingly important, yet unnecessary, part of our culture.
Keywords
PaintingSelf portraits
Female
Oil painting
American