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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Eye to I: Self Portraits from 1900 to Today

Mar 20, 2020 – Sept 20, 2021
8th St NW & F St NW, Washington, DC 20001, United States

In 2015, Kim Kardashian West’s Selfish became a New York Times bestseller. A collection of selfies that began with the digital camera of the early aughts and evolved into the iPhone age, it was published by Rizzoli, a house known for pristine illustrated books. Selfish spoke to the importance of selfies, to the form’s development alongside other technological innovations, and to its appearance in the art world. This exhibition takes up similar themes, exploring artistic self-representations from the turn of the century—when the camera cracked the mirrors that had formerly been the primary apparatus for depicting the self—to our present day selfie culture. —C.J.F.

Thomas Hart Benton, “Self-Portrait with Rita” c. 1924. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jack H. Mooney.