Self-portrait 1913

Vsevolod Maksymovych painted this self-portrait in the early 20th century, using oil on canvas. While the materials are traditional to fine art, the way they're applied is not. Look closely, and you'll see that the artist's somber suit is rendered with broad, flat strokes of brown paint. But then the background erupts into a field of carefully drawn circles. The contrast is striking. Maksymovych seems to be placing himself both within and against the emerging industrial age. His formal attire suggests bourgeois respectability, but the energetic, almost frantic, pattern behind him hints at a different story. The labor-intensive nature of those circles – each one individually rendered – speaks to a kind of obsessive, even compulsive work. It could be read as a commentary on the repetitive, alienating labor of the modern era. By using his own image, Maksymovych implicates himself in this condition. It is this tension between representation and abstraction, restraint and exuberance, that makes the painting so compelling. It blurs the boundaries between the artist, his craft, and the world he inhabited.