Self-portrait 1987

George Pemba painted this self-portrait in 1987, using oil paint. What strikes me first is how Pemba used these buttery strokes of paint to build up the form, especially in his face, like he's sculpting with pigment. You can almost feel the give and take of the brush against the canvas. And look at how he handles the white lab coat - not just a flat plane, but a field of subtle variations in tone and texture. There's a real push and pull between representation and abstraction, you know? That little dab of crimson on the palette, for instance – it's like a tiny explosion of pure color, existing for its own sake. Pemba's work reminds me a bit of early Philip Guston, that same kind of loose, intuitive handling of paint. It really speaks to how art is an ongoing conversation, where artists build upon and respond to each other's ideas, and how a painting is never really finished, just abandoned at some point. It's all about keeping the dialogue open.