Self-portraits tend to be associated with self-satisfaction or narcissism. But in Meese’s case this couldn’t be further from the truth. Everything points to his extreme modesty.

Meese is just as happy to completely obliterate his ego. His work contains no vestige of self-expression or self-analysis. Art is never expressive, Meese believes.

It is an image, a painted canvas, it cannot have a soul, or at any rate cannot embody part of his soul. Meese holds a mirror to the art world. Art is not religion, art is art.

Featuring many unpublished works, this catalogue shows the development and significance of the self-portrait in the oeuvre of the artist.

English, German and Dutch text.