Self-Portrait with Mirror exemplifies David Alfaro Siqueiros’s deep interest in radical techniques and materials. Painted in 1936, while Siqueiros was conducting the Experimental Workshop in New York City at 5 West 14th St., the work is airbrushed with pyroxylin on a sheet of Bakelite. Pyroxylin (Duco) paint is a nitrocellulose paint manufactured for the automobile industry. Dr. Irene Herner, the highly esteemed expert on Siqueiros, visited Mary-Anne Martin|Fine Art to view and research the painting. The work was taken out of the frame so that its highly unusual medium could be examined.
