Self-Portrait with and without the Mask 2005

Francesco Clemente made this pastel drawing called Self-Portrait with and without the Mask. You know, the mask is a classic trick for an artist. I imagine Clemente circling the paper, charcoal in hand, maybe even mumbling to himself. “Who am I today? Pig or man? Man or pig? Both? Neither?” There is an intriguing back and forth here, a dance between the human and the animal, a merging of identities. I love the way he’s rendered the skin tones. Is that anxiety in his eyes, or is it just a trick of the light? I find myself wanting to touch the paper, to feel the grain beneath the pastel. It reminds me of Ensor’s masked figures – those questions about identity never go away. Artists, we’re all just borrowing from each other, remixing the past, trying to make sense of the present. That’s what’s so great about painting – it is always in flux, open to interpretation.