Portrait of Leon Golub 2004

This painting of Leon Golub by Enrique Martínez Celaya is… well, it’s a mood! It's got this almost monochromatic palette, like layers of night, built up in thin, washy strokes. You can sense Celaya feeling his way through the image, letting it emerge gradually. The painting has a kind of ghostly presence. The way Celaya handles the paint, it's like he's not just depicting Golub but also capturing something about the weight of history, the burden of seeing too much. Look at the way the eyes are rendered, they feel both vulnerable and knowing. The surface has this great texture too, it looks like it's been worked and reworked, like a palimpsest. It’s hard not to think of Golub’s own work here. There's a conversation happening across time, an exchange of ideas, between these two painters. It's all about embracing the unknown, the unresolved. Isn't that what art's really about?