Self-Portrait 1922

Max Liebermann made this self-portrait etching, and it's all lines, scratches, and shades of gray. I love to imagine him looking in the mirror, trying to capture himself with this flurry of marks. He's got this intense stare, like he's trying to figure out who he really is. Those lines around his eyes, they're not just wrinkles, they're like the history of a life lived, you know? I wonder if he was thinking about Rembrandt while he was making this. It's like they're having a conversation across time and space about what it means to look, to really see yourself. Painters are always in dialogue, borrowing, stealing, and riffing off each other. And for me, that's what art is all about: one big, messy, beautiful conversation that never really ends.