Enigma 1923

Robert Lewis Reid made this pastel drawing called 'Enigma'. The marks are soft, with gentle hues of pink, blue, and gold. The face emerges from the ground, which looks like it was rubbed back and forth, almost like handwriting in the sand. I wonder, what was Reid thinking? Was he looking at a real person, or trying to evoke an idea, or memory? This reminds me of Odilon Redon, who used pastel to make ghostly images which seem to materialize out of thin air. The artist’s hand can be seen in the criss-cross lines of the pastel. There’s a nervous energy, but it is also tender. You can feel the soft touch of the pastel, a dry medium. This is not a painting, but it's still incredibly expressive and atmospheric, like the work of Whistler. Artists are always looking at each other’s work across time, riffing and expanding on it, adding their own experiences and emotions. In that way, art making is really an ongoing conversation.