Harém míope 1969

Jorge Martins made this painting "Harém míope," which translates to "Myopic Harem," and there's something immediately striking about the muted palette and the way these faces emerge, almost like tiles, or studies in a sketchbook. You can imagine Martins, brush in hand, layering thin glazes of paint, letting each square breathe and evolve. I wonder if he was thinking about the way we perceive each other, or how glasses act as these strange little windows, framing and distorting our gaze. Those blocks of color, the outlines—it's like he's building up a catalog of faces, each with their own distinct character. And that one with the red glasses—totally unapologetic, right? Painting is such a cool medium because you can evoke mood with minimal brushstrokes, and it becomes its own form of seeing. In the end, art is about this ongoing dialogue, artists riffing off each other, and it helps us expand our understanding of what it means to be human.