Portrait of a Chamorro Woman - Red 1934

Paul Jacoulet’s Portrait of a Chamorro Woman - Red is a color woodblock print, likely made with traditional techniques. I’m imagining the patient carving of each block, the registration of color upon color – layer upon layer. I feel so much sympathy for this artist—he's trying to capture the likeness of a person from a completely different culture. The woman is idealized but also kind of stiff. It feels like he’s really trying to understand her, to see her as a person, but there’s a sense of distance. I find myself looking at the surface of the paper and thinking about ukiyo-e prints and the Japanese artists he worked with, like Goyo Hashiguchi. The pinks and reds, the way they glow, remind me how artists are always looking at each other, responding, and borrowing. He's in conversation with Matisse, maybe. It’s all part of a big, long, beautiful, messy, and ongoing conversation.