César Moro 1937

Carlos Quizpez Asín painted this portrait of César Moro with oils, and I imagine a good deal of care. Look at the way the light glances off his face, the colors are baked like a Tuscan villa. The thing that grabs me is how the visible brushstrokes add texture, creating a surface that feels both intimate and slightly distanced, as though we're seeing Moro through a heat haze. There's a sense of depth, not just in the way the light falls, but in the very substance of the paint, you can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the canvas, a record of process. I’m drawn to that line of shadow defining the cheek bone, and the way it creates a kind of architectural form out of the flesh. It reminds me a little of some of those early Picasso portraits, where he was just starting to break things down into simpler forms. In the end, it's more about the conversation, the push and pull between seeing and feeling, knowing and not knowing, which makes art so endlessly fascinating.