Onvoltooid zelfportret: B-1-1, 9 februari Possibly 1942

Cor van Teeseling made this small, unfinished self-portrait in pencil on paper. Can you imagine him, perhaps in a simple room, on the 9th of February, trying to capture his own likeness? It's so light, almost ghostly, like he's trying to catch a fleeting thought. I feel the pencil tentatively finding its way, the artist mapping the contours of his face, searching for something beyond the surface. You can almost feel the pressure of the pencil on the page, the artist’s breath held in concentration. It reminds me of other artists who use self-portraiture as a means of inquiry. Think of Käthe Kollwitz's searching self-portraits, or even Van Gogh's raw, expressive faces. Artists, we're all just trying to figure ourselves out, one line at a time, right? Van Teeseling, like so many artists, shows us that a work can be complete, even in its incompleteness. Artists are always in conversation, building on each other's attempts to capture something true. In painting, the questions are often more interesting than the answers.