Self Portrait of the Artist at Age 60 1962

Philip Evergood made this self-portrait in 1962, when he was 60 years old, just working with ink on paper. The lines have a frantic, scratchy energy. It's like you can feel him really thinking through the image. Looking at the drawing, I’m struck by how the lines seem to build the face almost out of thin air. You can see it around the mouth. They are so thin and close together that they make up the shadow of his jowls. The texture is all in these repeated, quick strokes. It's not blended or smoothed; it's just raw mark-making. You can almost imagine him making the picture, with the nib of the pen digging into the paper. He’s not trying to hide the process at all; it's right there on the surface. It reminds me a little of some of those late drawings by Picasso, where the line just goes for a walk. Both artists seem to be having a conversation with themselves, figuring things out as they go. It reminds us that art is about exploring, not just stating something.