Male Portrait 1964

Tahir Salahov dashed off this portrait sketch of a man with ink on paper, and the date scribbled at the bottom suggests it was made in 1964. Look at the density of marks around the man’s eyes and brow; it’s like Salahov is mapping the landscape of his face, turning his gaze inwards. The ink is applied quite economically, yet it vibrates with energy. You can almost feel the pen scratching the page, building up tone and volume with these restless hatch marks. The man is looking down, and that combined with the thick, dark eyebrows gives him this mood of contemplation. It reminds me of those drawings by Käthe Kollwitz, where the lines are also heavy with a sense of the subject's inner life. Both artists seem interested in this idea of conveying feeling through the physicality of the mark. A simple but effective statement!