Three Self-Portraits with a White Wall 1957

John Bratby made this painting, Three Self-Portraits with a White Wall, with oil paint, probably in his studio, though when exactly is not known. There's a looseness here, a kind of searching for form that I really respond to. It’s like the painting came into being through layers of trial and error. I can imagine Bratby, cigarette in mouth, squinting through his glasses, trying to catch his own likeness in those mirrors. What’s he thinking as he paints? Is it about capturing a moment, or more about the act of seeing itself? The paint is applied thickly, almost aggressively. I mean, look at that white shirt, all those writhing strokes, and the way the red of his face bleeds into the white wall – it's visceral, right? It’s like he’s wrestling with his own image. Bratby reminds me a little of the German Expressionists, people like Kirchner and Heckel. He definitely shares their raw energy. For me, painting is all about that ongoing dialogue with artists of the past and present. It’s like we’re all in this big conversation, bouncing ideas off each other, and creating something new in the process.