Self-portrait 1912

Aristarkh Lentulov’s self-portrait is a striking image that splinters form and rearranges the artist's likeness into geometric planes of colour. It looks like he used gouache or watercolour. The painting is a symphony of warm browns, oranges, and pinks, creating a sense of depth, but also of fragmentation. Lentulov emphasizes the process of seeing as a construction, an active interpretation of the world. Look at the way the face is broken down into facets, like a Cubist sculpture. The artist's hands, holding a piece of paper, seem almost detached from the rest of his body, highlighting the act of creation, the artist mediating the world through art. This feels related to Picasso's portraits in that it shows the process and act of seeing and reassembling the world. It doesn’t offer us an illusion, it is upfront that it is a flat surface. Lentulov’s self-portrait invites us to consider the fluid relationship between perception, representation, and identity.