Gabriele 2010

Gazmend Freitag painted this portrait, Gabriele, with oil on canvas. You can see the brushstrokes, the way he’s built up the paint in layers to create this figure with a big hat. I like to imagine the painting as a kind of conversation, the artist speaking to the canvas, then listening, then responding. What was Freitag thinking when he put that first dab of paint on? What adjustments did he make? What changes did he feel compelled to apply? The face is where the artist really dug in – look how the red of her cheeks blossoms out from under the brim of that hat. It feels like he really wanted to see her, to get her essence. It is like the old masters but also not – lots of feeling is coming through here. Painting is like that, you know? A back and forth, an attempt to fix something that’s always slipping away.