Research of matery. Selfportrait (detail) 1994

Alfred Freddy Krupa made this self-portrait, "Research of matery," using oil on canvas in a size of 50 by 40 cm. The marks here are applied with a kind of searching energy, trying to find the form through layering and building up the surface. I think we can all relate to that feeling as artists, like you are always in the process of trying to find something that is always just beyond your grasp. Looking closer, you can see how the paint is thick, almost sculptural in places, especially around the nose and forehead. It creates a sense of depth and volume, while the darker tones on the right side of the face, create a kind of shadow that obscures the right side of the face. There’s a real physicality to the way he’s applied the paint, giving the portrait a kind of raw, immediate feel. Krupa's work reminds me a bit of Lucian Freud, in that both artists have a similar intensity of gaze and a focus on the materiality of paint to express the human form. Painting is a conversation, it’s always echoing across time and space. What do you think?