The black hat 2011

Gazmend Freitag made this painting with oil on canvas, and you can see him thinking, rethinking, feeling his way through it. The surface is built up from thin washes and broken marks, you sense him searching for a form, a figure, hidden somewhere inside the colors. I imagine Freitag working on this in his studio; he probably stepped back, squinted his eyes to check out the composition, wiped off some paint, then added more, responding to what was already there. The black hat casts a shadow, obscuring the figure's face, creating a bit of mystery. Freitag leaves the background loose, a wash of earthy tones, the figure emerges from these shifting forms. The painting feels like a conversation, a dialogue between the artist, the model, and the medium, that's how paintings come into being. Artists have always learned from each other and been in conversation with each other, and hopefully we can learn something from them too.