Portrait 1939

Curator: This is Sir Roland Penrose's "Portrait," currently held at the Tate. Penrose, born in 1900, was a key figure in British Surrealism, and this work exemplifies his playful approach to portraiture. Editor: My first impression is a feeling of fragmented whimsy. It's a portrait, but not in any conventional sense. More like a poetic inventory. Curator: Exactly. The work departs from traditional representation, incorporating wordplay and symbolic imagery to evoke a sense of the subject's essence rather than their physical likeness. Editor: The floating snippets of text—"his hair air," "his thighs windmills"—create such a tangible sense of being inside Penrose's head, like a stream-of-consciousness portrait. Curator: It also reflects the Surrealist interest in the subconscious and the exploration of identity through unexpected juxtapositions. Editor: It's almost like a collage of random thoughts, held together by this strange, almost architectural structure. A very personal and quite eccentric vision. Curator: Indeed, Penrose uses text as image and invites us to deconstruct the very notion of portraiture, even identity itself. Editor: So, it's less about capturing a likeness and more about unraveling the mystery of a person. What a playful way to approach such a serious subject. I am left with so many questions.