Patti Smith Self-Portrait

Musician, writer, and artist Patti Smith is known for her paradigm-shifting creativity. Fleeing suburban life for New York City in 1967, Smith wrote poetry and dabbled in photography and drawing before releasing her cutting-edge debut album Horses (1975), which fused her love of poetry with songwriting. Smith later memorialized this period of her life in the memoir Just Kids, which won the National Book Award in 2010.
In this raw, edgy self-portrait drawn in 1974, Smith depicts herself in a colorful top, staring out at the viewer with a punk-rock attitude. The inscription reads: “All the things he gave me,” referring to her relationship in the early 1970s with Blue Öyster Cult band member Allen Lanier. Smith describes the work with her characteristic emphatic prose and sensitivity: “The felt Berber hat. A tiny platinum teardrop necklace. An ivory camel. … Though a mere sketch it was done with great care in recognition to the giver.”