Tim Adams selects Celia Paul’s Painter and Model as one of his highlights of All Too Human at Tate Britain

Taught by Lucian Freud at the Slade, and for a time his muse and lover, Celia Paul made this self-portrait partly to subvert the familiar role of women in portraiture. By making herself both artist and subject she regains power over her own image. The half-used-up paint tubes scattered at her feet are a reference to Freud’s habitual method.

 

Read the full Observer review

 

Image: Celia Paul, Painter and Model, 2012 (detail)

© the artist, courtesy Victoria Miro, London / Venice

March 4 2018