Karin Hörzing 2021

Gazmend Freitag made this portrait of Karin Hörzing on paper in 2021. It’s a drawing, but also feels like a painting because Freitag uses these watercolor washes over it. You can see the way he lets the strokes of peach and yellow bleed into the paper. Looking closely, it feels like Freitag knew the woman well. See how he renders the eyes with a playful confidence, they’re not just placeholders, they're really looking. The charcoal marks are loose and expressive, capturing a likeness but also the energy of the person, and his feeling toward his subject. It feels like a conversation! That looseness, it reminds me a bit of Alice Neel, not just in the portraiture, but in the way that the medium is allowed to be itself, stains, smudges and all. Art is all about this kind of conversation, looking and responding, it's never really done, is it?