Bill Bruckner

Artworks

Self-portrait of artist standing, wearing only jeans and glasses, with three-fingered short right arm, and two small fingers that extend down from his left shoulder Young African American man wearing blue jeans and a polo shirt with green and yellow stripes against a yellow background

First image: Self Portrait, 2011. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of the artist.

Audio description

Second image: Leroy #2, 1997. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of the artist.

Audio description

Other works in the exhibition

Paul, 1993. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of the artist.

Audio description

Yvette, 1993. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of the artist.

Audio description

About the Artist

“These paintings are part of an ongoing series of portraits of friends who have disabilities that I began in the early 1990s. One of my intentions is to create images that convey disabled people’s ordinary―not heroic―dignity, humanity, and self-respect. In most of these works, I have attempted to present the persons you are viewing as looking directly back at you, as curious about you as you may be about them.” —Bill Bruckner

Bill Bruckner made many self-portraits before he felt ready to paint his disabled friends and colleagues. He wanted to be completely accepting of his own physical reality before asking others to sit for him. The portraits encourage us to engage, to hold the sitter’s gaze, and linger on the details.

Bill Bruckner lives in San Francisco. His work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Miami.