Hanns Schwarzensky 1959

Jan Cox made this painting of Hanns Schwarzensky, using oil on canvas, but we don't know exactly when. There's a vulnerability to this portrait, a raw openness. Cox uses a bold, almost brutal approach to mark-making. The paint isn't blended smoothly; instead, he lets each stroke stand alone. Look closely at the face - it's constructed from these fiery orange and red dashes, like the man is burning from within. The color palette is limited, dominated by a cool blue background that pushes the figure forward. The overall effect is one of immediacy, as if Cox was trying to capture a fleeting impression, to say something about the passage of time, or his own mortality. This all reminds me of late Guston. It's a painting that embraces ambiguity, allowing multiple interpretations to coexist, rather than offering a single, fixed meaning.