Self-Portrait Facing Left (Selbstbildnis nachlinks) 1920

This is Otto Mueller’s Self-Portrait Facing Left, and you can see it's made through mark making. It’s not so much about capturing a likeness as it is about the process of seeing, and recording that vision. It’s all about the bold, stark contrasts here, isn't it? The ink is laid down in such a physical way, you can almost feel the pressure of the artist's hand. Look at the way the shadow under his cheek is rendered. It’s a series of diagonal lines, almost violent in their application, yet they coalesce to create form. There is a sense of immediacy. And, you know, seeing this, I'm reminded of the woodcuts of Emil Nolde, that same raw, expressive energy. But Mueller brings his own sensibility, a kind of introspective intensity. In the end, art is a conversation, a back and forth across time, where artists borrow, steal, and transform ideas into something uniquely their own. It’s a process of continual evolution, with no single, fixed meaning.