Self-Portrait 1920

Anselmo Bucci made this self-portrait in 1910, and it seems he made it with a needle on a metal plate. What’s interesting is the graphic quality of the hatching. See how he builds up areas of dark and light with these tiny, insistent lines. It’s a slow process, like knitting! You can almost feel the artist’s hand moving back and forth, etching into the metal, a bit like life drawing, but much more permanent. Look how the lines suggest the folds of his jacket, or the way his hair seems to billow. And then, those bold, dark bars slashing across the image – are they scaffolding, or some kind of weapon? They create such a dynamic tension, pushing and pulling against the delicate lines of the portrait. It makes me think of Picasso, who was working in a similar graphic style at this time, also interested in the push and pull between abstraction and representation, especially his drypoints. Ultimately, it's a reminder that art is always a conversation, a constant back-and-forth between artists across time and space.