TitleSelf-Portrait
Artist
Alfred Leslie
(American, 1927 - 2023)
Date1992
MediumEtching, softground, and aquatint on white wove paper
DimensionsImage size: 41 3/4 × 31 3/4 in.
Sheet size: 49 3/4 × 39 1/8 in.
Framed: 54 1/16 × 42 3/4 × 1 5/8 in.
Edition18/20
SignedSigned in white crayon at lower center: "Alfred Leslie NYC 1992".
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, December 18, 2002
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number2002.14
Label TextFor more than a decade in the 1950s Alfred Leslie was a central figure within the Abstract Expressionist inner circle that included Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and others. He was included in the seminal exhibition organized by Clement Greenberg, "New Talent," that served as a showcase for the movement. In 1962, Leslie gave up abstract painting altogether, devoting himself to representation. Since that time he has created large-scale portraits that are often bluntly confrontational. Portraiture, Leslie said, "demanded the recognition of individual and specific people, where there was nothing to be looked at other than the person-straightforward, unequivocal, and with a persuasive moral, even didactic tone."
