Portrait of Academician Josef Orbeli 1943

Martiros Sarian made this portrait of Josef Orbeli, its surface a shifting world of brushstrokes and layered color. I can almost feel Sarian wrestling with the paint, trying to capture not just what Orbeli looked like, but maybe something of his intellect, his inner world, in the way he leans forward. There's a lot of blue in the face, you know, instead of just using flesh tones, it's like he's getting at something deeper. The beard is like a cloud, maybe thoughts floating up? Sarian used lots of expressive color, like the green behind Orbeli, it reminds me a little bit of Matisse. Painting isn't just about copying what you see, it's also a conversation with other artists. It is like we painters are all talking to each other across time. We are all trying to figure out how to make marks that mean something, even if we don’t quite know what.