Page 7 - Art First: Partou Zia: Portraits Beyond Self
P. 7
Portraits beyond Self
Penny Florence Prof. Emerita, The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL
e Self. It seems we know what we mean by ‘the self’. Day-to-day remarks,
such as, ‘I’ll go by myself’, or ‘You do it yourself’, are clear enough.
But if we go further, as in Landscape Portrait, Wales, we encounter a question
that has occupied a vital place in the art and thought of the past 100 years
or more. e face and the place are detailed and specific. But the question they
pose is both universal and historically pressing.
What is our relationship with the earth? How far is what we assume to be ‘our’
consciousness produced by place? Ever since Europe set forth to ‘discover’ the
world, it has also been embarked on a journey of self-exploration. is came
to a crisis in the 20th century as Europe’s ‘others’−women, those it had colo-
nized, those who rebelled−found voice.
Perhaps artists have always probed aspects of this idea. Partou Zia certainly did,
taking it in directions that enabled her to re-invent what self is in the every-day.
As a woman of Iranian origins, educated in England, she already had a complex
cat no. 2 Landscape Portrait, Wales, oil on canvas, 2007, 76 x 102 cm
