Marcel Proust 

Richard Lindner painted this portrait of Marcel Proust in 1965, using oil on canvas. Lindner, who favored the grit of city life as his subject matter, clearly aimed for something different here. The paint application is smooth, almost airbrushed in places, lending a graphic quality. The formalwear of Proust’s era is rendered into something sharper and more modern, flattening the figure, like a cardboard cutout. Lindner’s distinctive approach to color and form imbues the artwork with a sense of manufactured reality. The almost sinister handling of light and shadow across Proust’s face suggests an interest in the theatricality of identity, a constant performance of the self. Lindner reminds us that even the most seemingly straightforward materials – oil paint and canvas – can be used to explore complex ideas about perception, presentation, and the social construction of identity.