Hermit 1905

Anton Azbe painted ‘Hermit’ with oils, and look at that raw, immediate way of making a painting. It's like he's wrestling with the medium. The physical presence of the paint is undeniable. See how the skin tones are built up with these scumbles and dashes? It's almost sculptural. This nitty-gritty mark-making feels really direct, honest somehow. Check out the way the dark background seems to push the figure forward, trapping him in the foreground. I can't help but think of someone like, maybe, Chaim Soutine, who also had that kind of urgency and intensity, but with a bit more expressionistic flair. For Azbe, I think it's more about a certain kind of existential struggle with what it means to be a body, trapped in time.