Four attempts at self-portrait 1990

Oleg Holosiy made this four-part self-portrait on a large canvas, but we don’t know exactly when. Look at how he’s layered the paint, building up these hazy, almost dreamlike images. It’s like watching a memory try to surface. The color palette here is quite limited – mostly browns, reds, and yellows – giving the whole piece a warm, earthy feel. But the way he’s applied the paint, it’s not about smooth blending. You can see the texture, the brushstrokes, the physicality of the medium. It’s like the paint itself is part of the story. Notice that dark shadow over on the left, it obscures a lot of detail. But it also creates this incredible depth, like there's something hidden just out of reach. It's hard to pin down any definitive meaning in this piece. And maybe that’s the point. Like those Gerhard Richter portraits, the painting invites us to consider how art can capture the fluidity and ambiguity of experience, rather than fixed or definitive meanings.