Portrait of a Man with Glasses 1977

This is Jay Moon's etching, Portrait of a Man with Glasses, and right away I'm wondering, what kind of glasses are those? The etched line feels really searching, like Moon is trying to figure out who this guy is. It's all in grayscale, but the lines are doing the work, they’re describing all these contours, mapping the face. It's as if the artist is building up the form bit by bit, almost like they are feeling around in the dark. You see all the different marks and hesitations? It's a real record of their looking, their searching. I love how the sketchy lines feel so raw and honest. It reminds me of some of those portraits by Picasso or maybe even some of Guston’s later work—that feeling of trying to nail something down, but also letting the process itself be visible. Like the making-of is part of the meaning. Moon is not trying to get a likeness, but making a space for inquiry about the human condition.