Zelfportret 2017 nr. 64 2017

Here we have Philip Akkerman’s ‘Self-Portrait 2017 no. 64’ a watercolour made in 2017. Akkerman has been making self-portraits for years, and in this one, the way he’s broken down his face into geometric shapes really grabs me. It’s like he's not just seeing himself, but also thinking about how to construct a face using flat, simple planes. Looking closely, you can see how he’s used thin washes of watery colour, allowing the paper to peek through. The lines are tentative and the shapes are imprecise, it’s like he’s working it out as he goes along. The eyes are like little scribbles, barely there, and the way the light blue bleeds into the face gives the whole thing a ghostly, ethereal feel. Akkerman reminds me a little of Alfred Kubin, another artist fascinated by the grotesque and the surreal. But where Kubin delves into the nightmarish, Akkerman seems more interested in the absurdity of trying to capture oneself on paper. It’s a reminder that art is never a perfect representation, but always a flawed and fascinating interpretation.