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Cheryl Laemmle

Self-Portrait with Bottle and Cage

Maker

Cheryl Laemmle (American, b. 1947)

Title

Self-Portrait with Bottle and Cage

Year

1988

Medium

  • Oil on canvas

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Oil on canvas

Materials

oil paint

Supports

  • canvas

Dimensions

61 x 76.2 cm (24 x 30 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signed verso on canvas on left half, in black pen:"To Herby and Dorothy / Happy Holidays /1988/ Self Portrait Cheryl Laemmle"

Credit / Object Number

Credit

The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States, a joint initiative of the Trustees of the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection and the National Gallery of Art, with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute for Museum and Library Services

Object Number

2009.59.15

Type

  • Paintings

Publications

  • Journal

The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection, Fifty Works for Rhode Island

Exhibition History

The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection
Fifty Works for Rhode Island
Jul 20, 2012 – Dec 02, 2012

Label copy

Cheryl Laemmle’s mysterious, surrealistic paintings contain private stories about the artist’s inner life, often alluding to themes of melancholy, memory, and imperfection. Using personal symbolism drawn from childhood, dreams, and fairytales, this self-portrait is an allegorical still-life painting conjuring the psyche of the artist through the juxtaposition of metaphysical objects. The long, carefully painted, braided hair evokes fables of princesses in towers waiting to be set free, while the bottle and cage connote isolation and imprisonment.

The Figure
Contemporary Works from the Collection
Mar 12, 2010 – Mar 03, 2011

Label copy

This painting blurs the line between still-life and portraiture. Rather than portraying an accurate physical likeness, Cheryl Laemmle offers the viewer a personal vision of herself. The objects represented function symbolically to evoke childhood memories and important aspects of her past that she sees as integral to her adult persona. The faceless wooden figure, a common motif in Laemmle’s work, references the wooden figures that her grandfather would carve for her from birch trees that grew in the forest near the family home in Ishpeming, Michigan. The figure’s face is left blank except for random eye-like knotholes, perhaps symbolizing inner sight.

Image use

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In copyright This object is in copyright

Tombstone

Cheryl Laemmle (American, b. 1947)
Self-Portrait with Bottle and Cage, 1988
Oil on canvas
61 x 76.2 cm (24 x 30 inches)
The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States, a joint initiative of the Trustees of the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection and the National Gallery of Art, with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute for Museum and Library Services 2009.59.15

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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