Inhabited Painting 1976

Helena Almeida made this striking image, Inhabited Painting, by layering paint onto a photographic print. That fierce, almost violent, stroke of blue, right across the face, makes me think about how we perform our identities, how we conceal and reveal ourselves. I can imagine Almeida standing there, brush in hand, thinking about what it means to be both the subject and the artist. Is she obliterating herself, or liberating herself? That blue is so defiant, so absolute. It's not trying to blend in. It's there to challenge. It reminds me of some of John Baldessari's work, actually, where he would put colored dots over faces in photographs to block them out. Artists like Almeida are always in dialogue with one another, riffing on ideas, pushing boundaries. And it is a reminder that painting doesn't need to be on canvas; it can inhabit any surface, any medium. It’s all about the gesture, the intention, the mark. And the questions those marks provoke.