Portrait 2019

Alaa Awad made this portrait with paint and probably a brush – or maybe even just hands, who knows? – in 2016. The colours vibrate against each other; reds and blues pushed together so hard that the figure almost disappears. I can imagine Awad in the studio, circling the canvas, adding layer upon layer. The paint looks thick, like he’s really wrestling with the image, searching for something just out of reach. That slash of orange across the face, it’s almost violent, but also tender, like a hand trying to cover a wound. You know, I’m reminded of Francis Bacon, that same intensity and rawness, but with a totally different vibe, a different story being told. And that’s what painting is, right? A conversation across time, artists building on each other's work, messing it up, making it new.