Compression of the Museum. Portrait of Madame Lisa Giocondo 2017

Editor: So, here we have Alexander Roitburd's "Compression of the Museum. Portrait of Madame Lisa Giocondo" from 2017, an oil painting on canvas. The first thing that strikes me is how... squished she looks? Almost like a pancake! What's your take? Curator: The artist's strategic compression of form achieves a disruption of conventional portraiture. Note how the exaggeration amplifies certain features—the eyes, the mouth—drawing our attention to their abstract shapes and relative position on the canvas rather than a mimetic likeness. Editor: That’s interesting! So it’s not about *who* it is, but how those features are presented as shapes? Curator: Precisely. The artist subverts expectations of beauty by distorting recognizable proportions. This prompts us to question what we prioritize in a portrait – representation, idealization, or something else entirely? Consider also the textural quality of the impasto paint application which enhances the tangible, material presence of the image, and in this specific painting the paint is distributed as if applied under immense pressure, the medium itself is pushed beyond its expected usage. Editor: So the painting is both an image *and* a very physical object, even exaggerating its substance to push its own boundaries. I get the sense now of how it moves beyond just being a recognizable portrait, becoming an analysis of what a painting *is.* Curator: An astute observation. Roitburd pushes beyond surface level engagements by allowing the technique of figuration to serve the very literal act of compression through both application of the oil, as well as with the image itself. Editor: It really changes how I see it. It’s less about recognizing the Mona Lisa and more about experiencing the materiality and form. Thanks for pointing that out! Curator: A productive observation! Sometimes an image that at first seems simple in approach, when explored by applying these basic tenets, is capable of far greater contextual implications.