Self-Portrait in Black Shirt, Right Arm Outstretched 2000

Avigdor Arikha made this self-portrait with dry pastel, and I can just imagine him with the stick of color in his hand, making those decisive marks. What I see is an interesting blend of immediacy and careful thought. The surface feels almost like skin because of the way the pastel sits on the paper, and the colors blend to make a likeness of a man who is thinking. His hand is up to his mouth, a kind of classic pose of reflection. What was he thinking about? Was he pondering some art historical problem, or what he was going to have for dinner? Arikha had this incredible ability to capture a moment, making it feel both fleeting and permanent. He's part of a lineage of artists, all the way back to the Renaissance, who have turned to themselves as subjects, creating this ongoing conversation about what it means to be an artist, to see, and to be seen. He shows us that self-portraiture is a form of inquiry, a way of exploring not just what we look like, but how we think and feel.