Existing comment:
Self-Portrait as Fallen Angel
John D. Graham, 1886-1961
When asked several decades later if he knew John Graham very well, Calder answered, "Well, I thought I did." After Graham's death in 1961, his friends became disillusioned to learn that much of his life was invented-from his name to his story of his imprisonment with the czar in Russia. In Self-portrait as Fallen Angel, Graham represents himself with horns and flames emanating from his head, thereby expressing his belief in the satanic nature of genius. Allusions to the horns of Moses and the "inner eye" of Buddhism further complicate Graham's delusional conception of himself.
John D. Graham 1886–1961
John Graham's self-portrait boldly asserts his self-characterization as a shaman. Using both the front and back of the paper, Graham, with this drawing, invites the viewer to peer through the surface to an "inner eye," a Buddhist symbol for the state of spiritual enlightenment, in the center of his forehead. During the course of his career, Graham fashioned an elaborate and mystical persona for himself. The imagery of Graham's Self-Portrait as Fallen Angel reflects a great deal about the artist's self-construction. In likening himself to a "fallen angel," he referenced the divine origins he claimed, asserting that he was "the son of Jupiter and a mortal woman." Graham's implied role of a prophet helps explain his inclusion of horns, which allude to traditional depictions of Moses. In fact, the visual iconography of Moses came to include horns during the Renaissance because of a faulty translation of Hebrew, demonstrating the role of scholarly study in iconography.
c 1955 |