Untitled (Self-Portrait) 1929

This portrait by Arshile Gorky on a modest piece of paper feels like a peek into the artist's mind. I imagine Gorky, charcoal in hand, circling around his own image in the mirror. There's a vulnerability in the way the lines are laid down – tentative, searching. Look at how the heavy contour almost trembles around the face. The way it presses into the paper. And those eyes, heavy-lidded, but intense. You can sense the artist grappling with his identity. The strokes are smudged, softened, and built up, like he’s almost building a sculpture from shadow and line. It reminds me of other self-portraits by artists like Alice Neel or even Van Gogh – that raw, unflinching gaze. I see a painter in conversation with himself, and with the history of art. What do you see?