Sir 1975

Frederick Hammersley made this sketch, called "Sir," with what looks like pencil on paper. I can imagine him feeling around for the forms, trying to capture a person, but not really. The surface of the face is filled with a soft gray, and the lines around it are firm and dark. I wonder if he was going back and forth, erasing, smudging, then making a dark line again. That sounds like the search for something real, that the hand just can't find. But maybe he knew that all along. Look at the swirl of dark lines around where an eye should be, and the two little circles making the nostril. Those gestures feel so intentional, like Hammersley is letting us in on a secret. It reminds me of Picasso, how he would turn a face inside out and make you see it from all angles at once. They're both asking, what is a portrait, anyway? It's all just marks on a page until we decide what it is.