Mladen 1994

Alfred Freddy Krupa drew "Mladen" with pencil on paper. The marks are so delicate! There's a real softness to it. I imagine Freddy, as he's known, making subtle shifts and adjustments, coaxing Mladen’s likeness onto the page. It’s a slow, additive process of building up tones and textures, and capturing a feeling. Look how those soft pencil lines define the contours of Mladen’s face, giving him this quiet, almost introspective presence. It's like Freddy is saying, "I see you, I understand you.” In particular, I love the way Freddy rendered the hair, with its density and volume. You can almost feel the weight of it. And what’s interesting, too, is how the rest of the drawing is left somewhat unfinished, with the strokes fading out towards the edges, as if suggesting that this person is emerging from a dream, from a haze. All portraits are like that in some ways, aren't they? They are always trying to capture something that is essentially elusive, like a memory, like a feeling.