John Fitzgerald Kennedy 1964

Abdul Mati Klarwein created this monochrome portrait of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, its date currently unknown. Look closely, and you can see how the portrait emerges slowly, from a sea of tiny, granular marks. It's a reminder that images aren’t just made in a moment, they are built stroke by stroke, decision by decision. The texture is intriguing, especially around the hair and the side of the face. The blending is almost seamless, and yet, the marks still remain visible. This tension between detail and dissolution, presence and absence, gives the portrait an uncanny quality. See how the weight of the line fluctuates, building weight around the eyes, nose, and hairline? Klarwein’s portrait reminds me of Gerhard Richter’s blurred photos, which use a similar approach to convey a sense of distance and the elusiveness of truth. Like Richter, Klarwein isn’t just showing us an image, he’s asking us to question how we see and remember. Art is like that; it's a conversation that never really ends.