Untitled Self Portrait 1993

Francesco Clemente painted this watercolour self-portrait, and it looks like he was working fast. The red shapes are really immediate, raw, maybe even a bit reckless – I love that. There's a kind of bold economy to how he's used the red pigment to make his limbs. It's so simple, just this flat colour, and yet it’s also quite visceral. The paint soaks right into the paper, no messing around. If you look close, you can see these jagged edges, like the paper is almost devouring the colour. And then, the face, it’s almost like a mask, staring right back at you. The red of the lips connects to the body, like he is speaking through it. Clemente often uses the figure to explore ideas about the body and identity, it reminds me a little of Egon Schiele, that same kind of fearless self-exposure. And the red, it’s so full of contradictory meanings: passion, anger, love, danger. It's a reminder that art thrives on all the things that words just can't quite pin down.