Duty

IMG: rt4a, Duty, 2022, acrylic and pencil on linen canvas, 46 × 105 × 5 cm
Duty

2022
Acrylic and pencil on linen canvas
46 × 105 × 5 cm
RT4A2207
Courtesy of the artist

Duty came from a requirement of Apple Music, whose profile pictures for artists must show a centred human face, with no type or promotional content. The requirement gave the painting its title and the word written on it: Duty. Naturally, Marcel Duchamp’s Self-Portrait in Profile (1957) came to mind as the reference for a profile picture.

The final version kept only the sky from a portrait taken beside the pool of a palace hotel on the French Riviera. The word Duty sets this ‘idyllic’ image against the obligation to show oneself through a human figure rather than with just any image. The answer here is a portrait in negative, defined by what surrounds it: a sky.

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