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Spotlight: Self-portrait, August 8, 2018 by Don Bachardy
Don Bachardy is an acclaimed Los Angeles artist. Discover his life and work through a self-portrait that shows him as he is, wrinkles and all, and how he went from sneaking into movie premieres as a child to making portraits of celebrities who pose for him. Disponible en español.
Don Bachardy, Self-portrait, August 8, 2018, 2018, acrylic on paper, 29 x 23 in. (73.7 x 58.4 cm). Don Bachardy Papers. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. (c) Don Bachardy, 2018.
Overview
Title of Work: Self-portrait, August 8, 2018
Date of creation: August 8, 2018
Creator: Donald Jess Bachardy (b. 1934), American
Synopsis: Self-portrait, August 8, 2018 is a painting that measures approximately two feet by two feet. It is a self-portrait of the artist Don Bachardy at 84 years old. Bachardy is well-known for his portraits of famous people, including actors, writers, and musicians, but he often paints himself when he has no other sitter. He aims to show the truth in his work, even if it’s not flattering, saying that he “can only record what I see.”
About the Artist
Don Bachardy (b. 1934) is a Los Angeles-based artist specializing in portraits who is estimated to have made at least 17,000 works of art. He captures actors and writers, friends and strangers, completing each artwork in a silent two- to three-hour session. Many of his subjects pose at his home and studio in Santa Monica, where he’s lived for over 60 years. It’s also the home he shared with his longtime partner, the writer Christopher Isherwood. Bachardy’s early portraits were mostly black and white and graphite, though later he primarily used color and watered-down acrylic paint. Together, these portraits are a decades-long look at a broad cross-section of people who came in and out of Bachardy’s life in Los Angeles.
