Self portrait 1946

Dmitri Zhilinsky painted this self-portrait with oils, though when is a bit of a mystery. What grabs me is the way he's used the paint, so direct and kind of gutsy, like he’s wrestling with the canvas. The background is a riot of reds, swirled and dabbed, almost fighting with the more careful rendering of his face. Notice how those thick, juicy strokes give the whole painting a real sense of depth, like you could reach right into that red space. The highlights on his face are built up with these almost sculptural blobs of paint, giving him a powerful presence. But, look closer, there are areas where the paint is scraped back or thinned out, revealing layers underneath. It reminds me a bit of Lucian Freud's raw honesty, that kind of unflinching look at the self. It's like Zhilinsky is showing us not just a face, but the whole process of trying to capture it, and maybe something about himself. It’s the ongoing conversation of paint and self, an exchange that never really settles.