Impressive number of self-portraits made in the period between the Summer of 2004 and the Summer of 2005. The portraits’ formats have been determined by the measurements of an old bookkeeping book in which Krabbe made his self-portraits – one dating from the nineteen-fifties with squared and blank pages. Even the paint he uses for this project is from the same period. This corresponds with the idea that the self-portrait is a typical nineteenth-century activity.
The book has been reproduced as a facsimile, which means that the reader has the feeling of looking at the original sketchbook of the artist. Krabbe wanted to explore what the self-portrait can still be in today’s age. He wanted to gauge changing emotions, capture a moment and find the right tone. The selection in the book shows the diversity of solutions and styles he used. The self-portraits reveal there is no such thing as a fixed identity but maybe rather a ‘core’, a soul that is unchangeable. The text is in Dutch and English.
