Dimensions: image: 62.23 × 52.07 cm (24 1/2 × 20 1/2 in.) sheet: 75.25 × 56.52 cm (29 5/8 × 22 1/4 in.)
Copyright: National Gallery of Art: CC0 1.0
Edvard Munch made this portrait of Director Ludvig Didrichsen with ink on paper, and what strikes me first is the directness and immediacy of his mark-making. It feels like he’s thinking through the process of describing the sitter, rather than trying to make a perfect likeness. Look at the tangle of lines that describe Didrichsen’s suit. There is a real energy to the accumulation of marks, and they are raw and expressive. The lines overlap and intersect, creating a dense, almost chaotic texture that contrasts with the relative smoothness of the face. See how the face is built up of more open, sparse lines, which give it a sense of volume and light. It’s interesting to think of artists like Philip Guston who pursued a similar kind of rawness in their later work. This portrait really reminds us that art is a verb!
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