This 1991 self-portrait by Pele deLappe (1916-2007) hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washignton DC.
Fiercely committed to worker's rights, women's equality, and other liberal causes, Pele deLappe pursued art in tandem with social activism. As a vivacious and precociously talented fifteen-yearold, she was befriended in 1931 by the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and often sketched with his wife, the painter Frida Kahlo. Inspired by their social engagement, deLappe became a political cartoonist for newspapers associated with the labor movement and in 1952 helped found the Graphic Arts Workshop, a cooperative for artist-activists in San Francisco.
In this self-portrait, which deLappe made at the age of seventy-five, she contrasts the youthful features of an idealized mask with her own timeworn face, which she represents with unsparing frankness. The detailed rendering of hairstyle and jewelry betrays the necessity of presenting an attractive public facade. In the background, the signed drawing of a lithe female nude recalls the artist's younger self. -- National Portait Gallery
9/10 C. Chavez imp.
Pele de Lappe '92
Pele
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