“The first selfies date back to the 16th Century.”

By Mary Windsor, Staff Writer

Published in print Feb. 4, 2015

With the Internet in the palm of your hand, and a cell phone with a front facing camera, it’s easy to take a picture of yourself (a selfie), and post it on social media. Just add a filter and wait for the likes and comments to come through. As millennials, we are living in the selfie generation. But selfies are not a new concept by any means.

Artists have been capturing themselves through many mediums since the 1600s. One of the first selfies in the entire world was born during the Northern Renaissance era by Jan Van Eyck with his piece, “The Arnolfini Wedding.” Selfies used to take hours, even days to create, and now take less than second and can be taken any time, anywhere.

The Green Hill Center in downtown Greensboro is exhibiting a collection of  “Fritz Janschka’s Portrait Musuem” along with “Self-Portraits by NC Artists” through April 2nd.

Displayed are 20 oil paintings by Janschka in the styles of 20 contemporary artists’ self-portraits. Here he imitates Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Klee and Salvador Dali. Janschka is a painter, sculptor, and graphic artist from Vienna, Austria who now resides in America.

Along with Janschka’s gallery, The Green Hill Center is also showcasing 36 North Carolina artists whose work revolves around the self-perception in traditional and conceptual portraits, or selfies. These paintings of self-expression come from many mediums and inspirations. There are many oil paintings, charcoal and graphite drawings, glass vases, and sculptures designed by the artists. Not all self-portraits are of the self.

One artist, William Bernstein, even depicted himself in a sculpture of a dog. Many of self-portraits are in different styles, ranging from realism to abstraction as the artist tries to capture their self. Many capture raw emotion or the struggles the artists themselves have faced during their lifetime.

The Green Hill Center is inviting viewers to help mark the 1512 hours that the exhibition will be held and is asking the public to submit a selfie of themselves through Instagram or Twitter by using the hashtag #1512selfportrait to @greenhillnc. These “self-portraits” will be displayed in printed versions through out the exhibition.