Self-Portraits
José Luis Cuevas, Mexican, 1934 - 2017
1960-1961
Pen and ink, graphite and watercolor on wove paper
Image: 5 1/2 × 3 3/4 in. (14 × 9.5 cm)
Frame: 38 3/4 × 29 3/4 in. (98.4 × 75.6 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Bequest of Jay R. Wolf, Class of 1951
W.976.169
Geography
Place Made: Mexico, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Watercolor
Research Area
Watercolor
Not on view
Inscriptions
16 individual self portraits of artist all variously signed, inscribed and dated
Label
In this drawing, Cuevas creates a series of sixteen self-portraits imbued with melancholy. His delicate use of watercolors is juxtaposed with the dark and somber tones of his muted expressions. At twelve, Cuevas contracted rheumatic fever, which left him bedridden for two years. Not knowing whether he would survive, he sequestered himself in a studio apartment and at age fourteen decided to dedicate the rest of his life to making art. While Cuevas lived until eighty-three, his experience with illness continued to influence his artistic style and subject matter.
By developing these sixteen self-portraits, staring either at the viewer or into nothing, looking out of place, awkward or unbothered, Cuevas puts the viewer in a conversation with the elements of life we try to avoid confronting: suffering, sickness, death. He makes us sit with those parts of life for a second and hear what they have to say.
From the 2026 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 130, Window and Mirror: Distinctions Between Artists and Their Subjects, curated by Jamylle Gomes Santos Oliveira ‘26, Mellon Intern
Course History
ARTH 16, Mexican Art, Mary Coffey, Fall 2012
SART 20, SART 71, Drawing II, Drawing III, Jennifer Caine, Spring 2013
ARTH 16, Mexican Art, Mary Coffey, Fall 2012
ARTH 2, Introduction to the History of Art II, Joy Kenseth, Mary Coffey, Winter 2016
Studio Art 76.02, Senior Seminar I, Tricia Treacy, Winter 2025
Exhibition History
A Space for Dialogue 130, Window and Mirror: Distinctions Between Artists and Their Subjects, Jamylle Gomes Santos Oliveira ‘26, Mellon Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 9 - July 11, 2026.
Mexico Beyond Its Revolution, Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, Massachusetts, September 9-November 14, 2010.
Publication History
Brian P. Kennedy and Emily Shubert Burke, Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2009 p.170, no.141.
Provenance
Parke-Bernet Sale, New York, October 9, 1963; sold to Julius (Jay) Rosenthal Wolf (1929-1976), Class of 1951, New York, New York; given to present collection, 1976.
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