Provenance: Private Collection, USA

ABOUT THE WORK

Rembrandt began making paintings, drawings, and etchings of himself in about 1628, thereby inaugurating a career as a self-portraitist which is unique in the history of art. Where Rembrandt was original in using his own features for the purpose. Andy Warhol’s now iconic Marilyn diptych once raised questions of authorship and originality, this approach became a feature of much work in the Pop idiom. Pop artist Tom Wesselmamn was once quoted: “I refuse to draw the line between flat paintings and 3-dimensional structures, I’m aware of the differences between real and imitation but I don’t attach much significance in the distinction". Lee Aguinaldo would totally agree, Rembrandt may not be a Pop image unlike Monroe, but, probably the work is a tribute to Lee Aguinaldo’s visits to the Metropolitan Museum during his youth, Lee Aguinaldo appropriates 1 or 2 (or more) of over 40 self-portraits by Rembrandt painted when the Dutch artist was 54, noteworthy for "the wrinkled brow and the worried expression the troubled condition of his mind". Various appropriations make a visual mantra of the lift of the eyebrows that wrinkle Rembrandt’s forehead that reflects whimsical impatience, and the spark in his eyes that denies defeat. Through the years, Lee Aguinaldo has developed several styles of painting: "Flick" painting, where he flicked paint from a palette knife on canvas; "galumphing," which incorporated a few Pop or magazine images and was largely influenced by Robert Motherwell; and "linear" painting.