Self-portrait 

Curator: This is a fascinating piece. What we have here is Armand Henrion’s "Self-portrait," worked in oil paint. Editor: It strikes me as, well, rather unsettling at first glance. There’s this stark white face framed by that vibrant red cap… It feels theatrical, almost clownish, yet deeply serious at the same time. Curator: That tension is certainly present. Henrion's decision to render his face in nearly complete white disrupts our expectations. In portraiture, the face is ground zero of subjectivity, but here, it's a mask, begging the question of what he is obscuring and revealing by way of this mask. Editor: It makes me think of ritualistic face painting, you know? Like the kind you see in certain indigenous cultures before a performance or initiation. That stark white could represent purity, transformation, or even… death. And the glasses? They modernize that symbolic language. Curator: Intriguing thought. The eyeglasses are certainly an overt signal of self-regard— the "self" brought to the foreground through a symbol of modernity and vision. Do you read that red cap with symbolic meaning? I can't help but see echoes of renaissance portraiture in the shape. Editor: Absolutely, it adds a pop of color, literally and figuratively. Perhaps symbolizing vitality, passion. But isn't it interesting how that traditional shape is presented here, in conjunction with such experimental treatment of color on the face? Henrion appears to be juggling, harmonizing different epochs, different styles of being, different cultural markers. Curator: And the handling of the oil paint also contributes to the reading; short, broken brushstrokes creating a textured surface...there's no blending here. Everything feels so immediate, so raw. As though the artist wanted to capture a fleeting emotion. Editor: Ultimately, though, this work really resonates as a kind of symbolic theater of selfhood. What parts do we perform? What aspects of ourselves are illuminated, masked, colored? The canvas gives an eloquent meditation on how a self becomes an image. Curator: Beautifully put. A powerful encounter, indeed. I think I’ll be meditating on this for some time.