Ali 1974

Editor: This is Lucian Freud’s painting "Ali" from 1974, an oil on canvas. There's an incredible intensity in the subject's gaze, a kind of raw vulnerability. What do you see in this piece, beyond just the surface? Curator: Well, the 'surface,' as you call it, is everything in Freud, isn't it? He really did wrestle the soul through the flesh. Notice the colour – or lack of it. Ali’s skin isn't romanticised; it’s got that lived-in pallor, almost luminous. Do you find it brutal, or is there a tenderness lurking there? Editor: I can see what you mean about the "lived-in pallor", especially those flushed cheeks! I wouldn’t have said tender exactly, more… unflinching. He doesn’t shy away from imperfections. Curator: Precisely! It’s a far cry from the glamorous portraiture of, say, a Sargent. He digs beneath, wouldn’t you agree? I think of that quote by Bacon saying, "We are meat." And Freud? He *shows* us that meat, plain, vulnerable and imperfect. That open shirt, those rough hands fiddling with the waistband... It's intimate but not seductive, right? It's unsettling in its realism, or hyper-realism. It gets you, doesn't it? Editor: Absolutely unsettling! Almost confrontational. It definitely made me think differently about portraiture. It is more about the process than about flattering the sitter! Curator: Exactly! It is a challenging, beautiful testament to the power of raw honesty. And there lies the beauty, a visceral beauty. What's your feeling about that final assessment, Editor? Editor: Yeah, visceral really hits the mark for me. I might have to rethink everything I thought I knew about portraiture, starting with visceral! Thanks.