Self-Portrait at Eleven Years Old

"Self-Portrait at Eleven Years Old" is another example of Glenn Ligon using images and words of his cultural heroes to explore his own identity. The paper-pulp print depicts Stevie Wonder as pictured on his 1977 compilation album, "Looking Back." The musician looks very 1970s chic--wearing dark aviator glasses, a short, tight afro, and a wide-collared nylon shirt. Light sparkles from the corner of his glasses. The print was made at the papermaking studio, Dieu Donné. It is composed of a series of pulp-paper circles that are grouped together like giant Ben-Day dots. To make the image, Ligon made a drawing based on the album cover that was then printed on mylar. Stencils were cut from the mylar sheets and paper pulp was pushed through the cut-out circles onto a light blue sheet of paper. The raised circles of black and white paper pulp give the image a three-dimensional presence.