About this artwork
This theatrical and complex self-portrait is one of the last paintings Campbell completed before his untimely death in 2007. It is filled with a rich narrative, incorporating figures and symbols, mixed together in a dream-like composition. The artist presents himself as a Christ figure, displaying his palms which show stigmata. To the left a cross is marked out with police tape, which, as testament to Campbell’s dark humour, reads “Police. Death In Progress’. He takes this further with a skull visible at the base of the cross, a reference to Golgotha, the place where Christ was crucified. Crammed with death and religious symbolism, it is hard not to consider this work as a portrait of a man in some way aware that death was on his doorstep.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Steven Campbell (1953 - 2007) Scottish
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title:Self Portrait: Scratched out, it's all in the wrist
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date created:About 2006
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materials:Oil on canvas
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measurements:183.50 x 133.50 cm; Framed: 183.50 x 133.20 x 5.70 cm / 12.00 kg
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object type:
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credit line:Purchased in 2011 from Carol Campbell for £20,000, with funding from NGS Patrons
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accession number:PG 3691
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gallery:
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depicted:
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subject:
Steven Campbell
Steven Campbell
Steven Campbell emerged as the leading figure of a group of Scottish figurative painters who began to exhibit their work in the early 1980s. After working as an engineer for seven years, in 1982 Campbell graduated from Glasgow School of Art. A Fulbright Scholarship took him to New York, where he...