‘Mr close-friend-of-the-family pays a visit

whilst everyone else is out’ by Sonia Boyce OBE RA
I went to the opening exhibition at the newly refurbished Royal West of England Academy. Called “Me, myself, I” it shows a range of self-portraits across 4 centuries - but mostly 20th and 21st - and is a fabulous selection of different styles, cultures and media.
This was the most powerful and striking of all, for me. An observation in the official guide book: the subject, whose face shows distress and dread, is looking out from the picture straight at us, asking us to intervene, to do something, not just look. The outer frieze full of hands is telling.
The extra I also found very moving. It’s called ‘Blitzed city with self-portrait’ by John Minton, painted in 1941.  There is such an obvious resonance with the current time.