I used to work at the National Gallery in London. Old men came up to me fairly regularly to complain about the young girls (and sometimes the tourists of a particular ethnicity or nationality) taking selfies with the art. I’d smile and say, it’s an interesting diptych because so many of the most celebrated works in the Gallery are portraits– the ‘selfies’ of yesteryear– and indeed, Van Eyck’s /Portrait of a Man/ (1433) may be the earliest known panel self portrait, ant the very least in western art history, so framing oneself in that context, comparing the methods of portraiture over a span of a little under 600 years, is at its heart a commentary on the human desire to remember and be remembered, to catalog one’s existence and give it authenticity.
They did not like that let me tell you.
Thank you for fighting the good fight, unicornsandbutane.
wupacing 