Enigma 1923

Robert Lewis Reid made "Enigma" using pastels, and you can see the process right there on the surface. It's not about hiding the marks, but letting them breathe. Look at the way Reid layers those colours – the greens and blues undercutting the flesh tones, giving the figure a kind of spectral presence. The texture isn't smooth, it's almost crumbly, like the pastel is fighting to adhere to the surface. I love the way he's built up the background with these swirling, almost chaotic strokes that frame the figure but never quite contain her. Check out the hands. See how they're barely defined, just suggestions of form? They're like ghostly appendages, adding to this feeling of a dream, or a half-remembered memory. The whole thing reminds me a bit of Odilon Redon, that same embrace of the mysterious and the symbolic. Ultimately, it feels like Reid is asking us to embrace uncertainty and find beauty in the unresolved.