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Juan Davila / Chile/Australia b.1946 / Pre-modern self portrait 1988 / Screenprint on paper, ed. 1/30 / 92.5 x 65cm / Purchased 1989. Russell Cuppaidge Bequest / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Juan Domingo Davila/Copyright Agency, 2021
Juan DavilaPre-modern self portrait 1988
Not Currently on Display
Pre-modern self portrait is an outstanding screenprint editioned by Juan Davila at Port Jackson Press. This particular image demonstrates the shift in his work from overtly sexual references to a concentration on portraits which more obliquely convey the complexity of the artist’s personal experience and his political questioning.
The central figure in recalls the work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907–54), who used self-portraits to examine the relationship between image and identity. The surrounding motifs of the draped flag with star, smoking industrial chimney and hammer and sickle refer to left-wing political movements.
Juan Davila was born in Santiago, Chile, and emigrated to Australia in the wake of Augusto Pinochet’s 1974 military coup. His work often addresses the role of art in both countries, and questions how visual language is used in political, social and cultural contexts.
Davila draws on a wide range of visual references, including corporate logos, Pop art, gay pornography and Latin American political satire. The purpose of his work is ‘to propose an alternative reading of art history, if you like, to play with the idea of belonging’.1 Davila’s method of citation and quotation challenges ideas of authorship of ‘official’ histories, while his portrayal of figures of mixed races, genders and sexualities confronts social anxieties about difference.
Endnotes:
1. Juan Davilia, ‘Interview with Juan Davilia [by Paco Barragán]’, Art Pulse, [2016], <artpulsemagazine.com/interview-with-juan-davila>, viewed January 2021.