Jeune fille aux épaules nues 1953

Tsuguharu Foujita, bless his heart, gave us this girl with bare shoulders in a painting that feels like a whisper. I can imagine Foujita in his studio, surrounded by all the clamor of Paris maybe, trying to capture a certain fragility. Look at the thin washes of color. It’s like he’s building up the image with the lightest touch, barely there, letting the paper breathe. The eyes, though, have this incredible directness, which is quite disarming. The hands are so carefully rendered, with such gentle curves, that it feels like the girl is protecting herself, or maybe about to make music? And the colors, that muted palette of blues and yellows, create a dream-like haze, which softens all the edges. This young girl has an iconic presence. She reminds me of a certain type of Ingres painting, but a bit more raw, a bit more delicate. Artists, you know, we are all magpies, picking up shiny bits from each other, transforming them, and making something new. Painting is a process of endless searching, where meaning emerges through suggestion and the incomplete.