Self-portrait with Cucumbers 

Erwin Wurm often focuses on mundane objects that help us cope with daily life and through which we ultimately define ourselves. Composed of his landmark cucumber, Self-portrait with Cucumbers is an iconic series of sculptures, in which the Austrian artist identifies himself with a cucumber in an iconoclastic attitude towards the great tradition of self-portraiture. He takes an icon of Austrian culture—pickled cucumbers—that form an integral part of South German cuisine, a meal that a Swabian would refer to as a “Vesper”, a Bavarian as a “Brotzeit” and an Austrian as a “Jause”. The title is the only thing that guarantees that this work of art has the quality of a self-portrait. The artist says that “cucumbers are an age-old non-shape. There are millions of different cucumbers. No cucumber is the same as the next, rather like people. That appeals to me a great deal.” Is this self-portrait, in which he objectifies himself and identifies as a vegetable, indicative of the character and image of the artist as a creative genius? Self-portrait with Cucumbers is the testimony of a skeptical artist, who uses wit, irony and sometimes even ridicule as artistic strategies.