Portrait of Zofia Romer 1935

This is Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz's portrait of Zofia Romer, made in 1935 using charcoal and pastel. Look at the way Witkiewicz builds the image with these powdery marks, like he’s feeling his way through the form. It's not about perfection but about a process, a kind of searching. The beauty here lies in the raw physicality of the materials. The charcoal gives us these dark, almost frantic lines, while the pastel softens the edges and adds a ghostly glow. The way he layers these materials creates a push and pull, a tension that keeps your eye moving. Check out the hair, for instance: it’s a scribble of dark energy, a mass of anxious lines that somehow capture the essence of unruly thoughts. It reminds me of some of Odilon Redon's more gothic portraits. Ultimately, Witkiewicz seems to remind us that art is a conversation, an ongoing experiment, a space for embracing ambiguity and multiple readings.