Portrait of Oswald de Andrade 1922

Tarsila do Amaral made this portrait of Oswald de Andrade with oil on canvas. Check out the brushwork, it’s direct and honest, like she’s not trying to hide anything. The colors are earthy, but with these jolts of red on his cheeks that give him this lively, almost feverish energy. I love the way she builds up the form with these distinct strokes. Look at the green in his jacket, see how it’s not just one flat color? It’s a mix of greens and yellows, even some blues peeking through. It’s like she’s thinking about every single mark, what it does on its own and how it plays with the marks around it. It's kind of reminiscent of Cézanne in the way she breaks down the figure into planes of color. But where Cézanne is all about structure, Tarsila feels more intuitive, more playful. She’s pushing and pulling the paint, seeing what it can do. To me, art is about that conversation – the artist, the paint, and the subject all talking at once.