Portrait of Rorschach Testing Himself and Finding Himself Guilty

Steven Campbell’s Portrait of Rorschach Testing Himself and Finding Himself Guilty refers to Hermann Rorschach, the Swiss psychiatrist who created the famous inkblot test. A book showing the inkblot tests can been seen open in the foreground of this complex narrative picture.

Campbell studied at Glasgow School of Art and lived and worked in New York between 1982 and 1987. In 1984 Andy Warhol created a series of paintings based on the Rorschach test and Campbell’s picture is partly a response to Warhol’s works. It also reflects Campbell’s interest in the art of the Surrealists and their fascination with psychoanalysis and the interpretation of people’s dreams.

Campbell returned to Scotland in 1987 and lived there until his death in 2007. This painting now joins the collection at National Galleries of Scotland, which includes world-class holdings of Surrealist art.