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Visions of the Self: Rembrandt and Now

In partnership with English Heritage

April 12–May 18, 2019
Grosvenor Hill, London

Installation video Play Button

Installation video

Installation view Artwork, left to right: © Rudolf Stingel, © Howard Hodgkin. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Artwork, left to right: © Rudolf Stingel, © Howard Hodgkin. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view Artwork, left to right: © Cindy Sherman, © Rudolf Stingel, © Georg Baselitz. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Artwork, left to right: © Cindy Sherman, © Rudolf Stingel, © Georg Baselitz. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view Artwork, left to right: © Urs Fischer, © Rudolf Stingel. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Artwork, left to right: © Urs Fischer, © Rudolf Stingel. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view Artwork, left to right: © Giuseppe Penone; © Glenn Brown; © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2019; © Richard Prince. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Artwork, left to right: © Giuseppe Penone; © Glenn Brown; © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2019; © Richard Prince. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view with Ellen Gallagher, Odalisque (2013) Artwork © Ellen Gallagher. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view with Ellen Gallagher, Odalisque (2013)

Artwork © Ellen Gallagher. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view Artwork, left to right: © Glenn Brown; © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved. DACS 2019; © Jenny Saville. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Artwork, left to right: © Glenn Brown; © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved. DACS 2019; © Jenny Saville. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view Artwork, left: © Jenny Saville; right: © Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2019. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Artwork, left: © Jenny Saville; right: © Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2019. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view with Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait with Two Circles (c. 1665) Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view with Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait with Two Circles (c. 1665)

Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view Artwork, left and center: © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Licensed by DACS, London; right: © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Artwork, left and center: © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Licensed by DACS, London; right: © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view Artwork, left to right: © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/DACS 2019; © Gerhard Richter 2019 (16042019), © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2019; © 2019 Dora Maar Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris; © Charles Ray. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Installation view

Artwork, left to right: © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/DACS 2019; © Gerhard Richter 2019 (16042019), © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2019; © 2019 Dora Maar Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris; © Charles Ray. Photo: Lucy Dawkins

Works Exhibited

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait with Two Circles, c. 1665 Oil on canvas, 45 × 37 inches (114.3 × 94 cm), English Heritage, The Iveagh Bequest (Kenwood, London).Photo: Historic England Photo Library

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait with Two Circles, c. 1665

Oil on canvas, 45 × 37 inches (114.3 × 94 cm), English Heritage, The Iveagh Bequest (Kenwood, London).
Photo: Historic England Photo Library

Glenn Brown, Sex, 2003 Oil on panel, 49 ⅝ × 33 ½ inches (126 × 85.1 cm)© Glenn Brown. Photo: Robert McKeever

Glenn Brown, Sex, 2003

Oil on panel, 49 ⅝ × 33 ½ inches (126 × 85.1 cm)
© Glenn Brown. Photo: Robert McKeever

Jenny Saville, Self-Portrait (after Rembrandt), 2019 Oil on paper, 54 ⅛ × 40 inches (137.5 × 101.5 cm)© Jenny Saville

Jenny Saville, Self-Portrait (after Rembrandt), 2019

Oil on paper, 54 ⅛ × 40 inches (137.5 × 101.5 cm)
© Jenny Saville

About

Rembrandt’s masterpiece Self-Portrait with Two Circles (c. 1665) will go on view at Gagosian Grosvenor Hill, heralding a new alliance between the international gallery and English Heritage—the charity entrusted with the care of this painting and more than 500,000 other paintings and artifacts, together with more than 400 historic sites across England.

Rembrandt’s legendary painting will be the centerpiece of an exhibition of self-portraits that will also include works by Francis Bacon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lucian Freud, and Pablo Picasso, as well as leading contemporary artists such as Georg Baselitz, Glenn Brown, Urs Fischer, Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin, Giuseppe Penone, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, and Rudolf Stingel, among others. A new work created by Jenny Saville in response to Rembrandt’s self-portrait will be revealed for the first time. Entry to the exhibition is free.

The partnership between Gagosian and English Heritage, which will be launched with this exhibition, will entail the gallery supporting the charity and its sites, artworks, and artifacts—including Kenwood, the home of Rembrandt’s self-portrait in the north of London. To begin, Gagosian will support the conservation of the painting’s eighteenth-century wooden frame. Other future events between the two organizations are in the planning stages.

Anna Eavis, Curatorial Director at English Heritage, comments: “Working with Gagosian will allow us to create exciting juxtapositions between our collections and the gallery’s modern and contemporary program. We’re delighted to be starting with Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with Two Circles, which usually hangs at Kenwood. It’s one of the world’s great paintings and, despite its considerable age, a work of extraordinary modernity.”

After Gagosian, Self-Portrait with Two Circles will return to Kenwood. In October of this year, the painting will be the focus of a special new display, timed to coincide with the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death.

Read more

View of the south front of Kenwood House.

Kenwood House

Anna Eavis, the curatorial director of English Heritage, traces the history of Kenwood House and details the remarkable collection of paintings that reside there.

Still from video Visions of the Self: Jenny Saville on Rembrandt

Visions of the Self: Jenny Saville on Rembrandt

Jenny Saville reveals the process behind her new self-portrait, painted in response to Rembrandt’s masterpiece Self-Portrait with Two Circles.

Cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Spring 2024, featuring Jean-Michel Basquiat Cover

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2024

The Spring 2024 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available with a fresh cover design featuring Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Lead Plate with Hole (1984).

Portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat sitting inside his studio and in front of his paintings

Jean-Michel Basquiat: Los Angeles

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s sisters, Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, met with filmmaker Tamra Davis, art dealer Larry Gagosian, and author and curator Fred Hoffman to reflect on their experiences with the artist during the 1980s in Los Angeles.

A Foreigner Called Picasso

Behind the Art
A Foreigner Called Picasso

Join president of the Picasso Museum, Paris, Cécile Debray; curator, writer, biographer, and historian Annie Cohen-Solal; art historian Vérane Tasseau; and Gagosian director Serena Cattaneo Adorno as they discuss A Foreigner Called Picasso. Organized in association with the Musée national Picasso–Paris and the Palais de la Porte Dorée–Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration, Paris, the exhibition reframes our perception of Picasso and focuses on his status as a permanent foreigner in France.

Dora Maar, Portrait de Picasso, Paris, studio du 29, rue d’Astorg, winter 1935–36

A Foreigner Called Picasso

Cocurator of the exhibition A Foreigner Called Picasso, at Gagosian, New York, Annie Cohen-Solal writes about the genesis of the project, her commitment to the figure of the outsider, and Picasso’s enduring relevance to matters geopolitical and sociological.

News

Visions of the Self: Rembrandt and Now (London: Gagosian, 2020)

Book Launch

Visions of the Self
Rembrandt and Now

Tuesday, March 17, 2020, 6:30–8:30pm
Kenwood House, London
www.english-heritage.org.uk

In the interest of public health, this event has been postponed until further notice.

Gagosian is pleased to host a drinks reception to celebrate the release of Visions of the Self: Rembrandt and Now, published on the occasion of the recent eponymous exhibition at Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London. Organized in partnership with English Heritage, the exhibition places Rembrandt’s masterpiece Self-Portrait with Two Circles (c. 1665) in dialogue with self-portraits by Francis Bacon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lucian Freud, and Pablo Picasso, as well as leading contemporary artists such as Georg Baselitz, Glenn Brown, Urs Fischer, Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin, Giuseppe Penone, Richard Prince, Jenny Saville, Cindy Sherman, and Rudolf Stingel, among others. The catalogue includes an introduction by Wendy Monkhouse, senior curator at English Heritage, and a text by art historian David Freedberg. To attend the free event, RSVP to londonevents@gagosian.com. Space is limited.

Visions of the Self: Rembrandt and Now (London: Gagosian, 2020)

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait with Two Circles, c. 1665, English Heritage, The Iveagh Bequest (Kenwood, London). Photo: Historic England Photo Library

Tour

Visions of the Self: Rembrandt and Now
In partnership with English Heritage

Thursday, April 25, 2019, 6pm
Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London

Gagosian director and art historian Richard Calvocoressi will lead a tour of the exhibition Visions of the Self: Rembrandt and Now at Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London. Calvocoressi will take a look at postwar and contemporary masters of self-representation, anchoring the conversation to an important Rembrandt masterpiece included in the exhibition, Self-Portrait with Two Circles (c. 1665). The event has reached capacity. To join the wait list, contact londontours@gagosian.com.

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait with Two Circles, c. 1665, English Heritage, The Iveagh Bequest (Kenwood, London). Photo: Historic England Photo Library