Self-Portrait 1974

This is Sam Francis’s self-portrait, made with what looks like a red crayon or pencil, printed onto paper. It’s like a raw, quick sketch, but maybe that's its strength. I can almost feel the artist figuring himself out, pressing down hard, then going lighter as he explores the set of who he is. The squarish frame and the heavy brow give a sense of confinement, or maybe concentration? The mouth, though, that generous line, suggests something more open, a capacity for speech, or maybe even pleasure. Looking at this, I'm reminded of other artist self-portraits, like those by Beckmann, who also seemed to be trying to pin down some elusive truth about themselves. Artists are always in conversation, you know, across time. It's like we’re all trying to answer the same questions. What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to see? And how do we put that on paper?