Benny Musliu 2018

Gazmend Freitag made this portrait of Benny Musliu on paper with dry media. It looks like it came into being through intuition and with a bit of searching. I’m thinking about how the artist’s hand moved across the surface, building up the image through line. The artist must have been thinking about line and form, trying to capture the essence of this dude. The red lines are a bold move, adding warmth and depth, kinda pushing against the cool blues in the eyes. I love the hatching around the face – it gives a sense of volume, and the way the lines build up in certain areas suggests shadow, giving the face a kind of weight. I see echoes of portrait drawings by Lucian Freud, where every mark feels so considered, building up to a complex vision of a person. It feels like Freitag is in conversation with other artists, working through the same questions about how we represent each other. Ultimately, painting is about exchange, across time and space, between artists who are grappling with similar questions.