New Yorker 2006

Lucian Freud made this etching, New Yorker, with tight, close-knit lines, a real choreography of marks. The image slowly emerges, as if built up cell by cell. I can imagine Freud, peering intently, etching tiny marks into the plate with focused intensity. There is an intimacy to the image, the glasses magnify the gaze. The sitter almost seems to be looking back at Freud himself, so the picture feels like an encounter, a psychological transaction. I love the way etching allows the artist to build form gradually. I bet Freud was thinking about other artists, like Rembrandt or Goya, who also used etching to explore the depths of human psychology. Etching is like a conversation across time, artists learning from and building upon the techniques and insights of their predecessors. For me, this is the gift of painting; this kind of embodied expression embraces uncertainty, allowing for multiple readings.