Self-Portrait - 55 East Division Street 1948

This lithograph was made by Ivan Albright, and wow, is it something! The whole image is vibrating with detail, a surface teeming with life, or maybe teeming with the opposite of life, death? Albright doesn’t shy away from showing the world as he sees it; every wrinkle, every blemish, every detail is rendered with precision, a kind of obsession. Look at the way the light catches the folds of skin around his eyes, or the way the lace tablecloth seems to dissolve into a sea of intricate patterns. It feels like time is etched into every corner of this image. It reminds me of Otto Dix, another artist who wasn't afraid to confront the darker aspects of human existence, and like Dix, Albright invites us to contemplate the fragility of life, and the inevitability of decay, but there’s also a kind of beauty in that honesty, a reminder to embrace the present moment, before it too fades away.