TitleSelf-Portrait (Predella)
Artist
Don Nice
(1932 - 2019)
Date1994
MediumWatercolor
DimensionsSheet size: 16 × 40 1/2 in.
Mat size: 25 1/4 × 47 in.
SignedSigned lower right in graphite: "Nice"
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, January 18, 1995
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number1995.1
Label TextNice frequently borrows and updates the convention of the Renaissance predella – a small strip of paintings that forms the lower edge of large altarpieces. He has created portrait predellas in which he seeks “to give a new dimension to portrait painting. Rather than put down a realist likeness of a person, I use in these predellas objects that are significant and personal for an individual . . . . These objects are . . . painted in a row on a neutral ground to represent the person symbolically. For me it tells more about the person than a traditional portrait.” In the work in the Academy’s collection, Nice has chosen objects that symbolically reflect his own personality, background and desires.
