Portrait of Frederick Kiesler 1954

This is Hedda Sterne’s drawing of Frederick Kiesler, made with charcoal, or maybe it’s paint, and a kind of wild, gestural energy. It’s all about the process, seeing how quickly she could get something down. The surface is raw, the marks aren’t labored over. Look how the chair he's sitting on is made up of these jagged, dark lines. They're almost violent, but they also give the chair a kind of volume, a presence. And then there's Kiesler himself. His face is just blank, a void. Sterne’s letting us know that a portrait isn’t about likeness, it’s about feeling, about a kind of vibe. It reminds me of some of Philip Guston’s later drawings, that same raw, searching quality. I think what Sterne’s saying is that art isn’t about perfection or answers. It’s about the messy, beautiful, and sometimes scary process of trying to figure things out.