Zelfportret 1999 nr. 41 1999

Philip Akkerman made this self-portrait in 1999, and it’s number 41 in a series – forty others preceded it! The sienna monochrome gives the work a feeling of classical drawing, like a study, but the line is so loose, the shading so uneven and approximate, it’s like a caricature of a classical portrait. It makes me think of a drawing gone wrong! He’s really pushing and pulling the features, inflating the volumes of the head. He’s squashed the whole thing, with a clear black line giving structure to the whole. Is this what he sees when he looks in the mirror? Is he being cruel, funny, or is he just not that good at drawing? I love the line around the lips, it is as if it is hanging off the face! The way the drawing is not perfect, feels like a very honest form of expression, and invites us to see ourselves reflected in it.