One of art’s great themes is ... art. Just as novelists have been writing about novels ever since Cervantes invented Don Quixote, artists have been depicting art itself ever since... well, perhaps you know the first example. In his famously complex masterpiece Las Meninas, the 17th-century artist Velázquez portrays himself at the easel in the act of portraying the king and queen who can be seen in a mirror. Vermeer similarly tries to represent the nature of art itself of his picture The Art of Painting.
Picasso too explores the mysteries of art in a series of paintings on the theme of The Studio (L’Atelier). This is actually a very old subject indeed. Renaissance artists often painted Saint Luke portraying the Virgin, taking it as an opportunity to record the painter’s craft.
More recently, Jasper Johns made a sculpture of his own brushes in a can and Damien Hirst has sealed an entire studio in a vitrine.
In these postmodern times, a lot of art is all about art. Turner prize winner Mark Leckey comments on the work of Jeff Koons in his own works. Mordant artist David Shrigley also chews away at the idea of art.
Are works of art that portray art mere navel-gazing? Not at all. Creativity is always self-conscious. Picasso and Velazquez alike were fascinated by the strange thing that is “art” and created masterpieces out of that introspective meditation.
So this month’s challenge, to kick off our new project The A to Z of Reader’s Art, is to create your own self-referential work of art about art. It might be a painting of the word art or a cast of your pencil or ... surprise us. That’s what art is for, surely.
How to share your artwork
Share an image of your artwork via GuardianWitness, by clicking the blue “contribute” button on this page, or via the Android or iPhone app. If you have any problems, email us at userhelp@theguardian.com.
We’ll feature some of our favourite submissions on the Art and Design site. By sending us your pictures you: a) acknowledge that you have created the pictures or have permission to do so; and b) grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, free licence to publish your pictures as described. Copyright resides with you, and you may reuse your pictures however you wish. Read our full terms and conditions here.
Don’t worry if they don’t appear straight away – everything has to be approved before it can be “hung” in our online gallery. Do tell us in the comments if there are any improvements we could make to the series.
