Portrait #1 2022

Adam Caldwell made "Portrait #1" sometime in the 20th century, and it looks to me like it was made with oil paint and collage, like it came together through a process of layering, cutting, and pasting. I bet Caldwell was thinking about identity and maybe about how we're seen and how we see ourselves. There's a face, obscured by a thick red stripe, a crowd of people down below, and a flag sort of hovering behind. The red stripe reminds me of a censor bar, or maybe a wound, but it also flattens the face, almost turning it into an object. It is bold and confrontational. I can imagine Caldwell in his studio, moving things around, making choices, trying things out. He is in dialogue with other artists, like maybe Jasper Johns, riffing on ideas about flags and symbols. Painting is a conversation, after all, a way of talking to other artists across time. It's about seeing what others have done and then pushing back, trying something new, making it your own.