Five Identities is an exploration of self-portraiture through the production of alter egos. In this piece, Brian O’Doherty poses alongside four of his invented character. As the artist explained: “Each of them has their identity and each was born out of different necessities. I always had the notion that everyone, depending on the circumstances in which they present themselves, is multiple” (Brian O’ Doherty with Phong Bui, In Conversation, The Brooklyn Rail, June 2007).

From left to right, we first see O’Doherty himself, followed by William Maginn, an actual 19th-century Irish wit and writer. Next is Patrick Ireland, O’Doherty’s most well-known persona, who came into being in 1972 in response to Bloody Sunday, when British soldiers opened fire on hundreds of civilians marching in Derry to protest the interment of political activists. Standing next is Sigmund Bode, an art historian, created in 1950. The name was taken from Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm von Bode, who was a painter, a Renaissance scholar, and the director of the Kaisser Friedrich Museum in Berlin. The seated alter ego is Mary Josephson, a writer for Art in America and Artforum, who arrived on the scene in 1973.