Proust: Dr. Cottard 1979

Curator: What a character! He appears to have two faces here. Editor: Indeed, in Maria Bozoky's "Proust: Dr. Cottard" crafted in 1979 using watercolor and ink, we encounter precisely that duality. It strikes me immediately as a study in contrasts. The fluidity of watercolor clashes deliberately with the rigidity of ink, as though attempting to capture something just out of reach, both there and not. Curator: It’s intriguing, isn't it? Like the artist is playfully unmasking a character, almost splitting the personality down the middle for us to examine the inside and outside. Editor: The composition performs a psychological fragmentation on the subject, which I read as highly intentional. Note the economy of line, which serves less to depict than to deconstruct. And did you notice how the colour palette remains deliberately restricted? I suspect to emphasize a somber undertone... Curator: The mood it evokes… that somber tone makes him seem very serious, reflective maybe. But it also has an intimacy to it like it's a secret glance shared between the viewer and artist only! It gives him the aura of someone deeply observant, but holding back just as much. It feels vulnerable, almost confessional! Editor: Confessional maybe, but I find his vulnerability rather studied. The double visage suggests self-observation elevated almost to self-consciousness... I keep circling back to the semiotic charge of these seemingly simple lines! Curator: Right, but isn’t it a magic trick? He has a stillness on one side but it's also like seeing Dr. Cottard as a shadow play - those raw brushstrokes build the form and give the character dimension. And then it invites us, the audience, to connect it all through a shared, lived moment of awareness. I keep wondering, does he represent some side of us, too? Editor: Whether Bozoky intended the piece as a mirror for collective self-perception, or as an interrogation into portraiture itself, what resonates most strongly is this visual friction... Curator: This ink and watercolor certainly gives one the impression to reflect on and cherish, thanks for walking us through. Editor: My pleasure, until our next rendez-vous with artistry and thought.