Self-portrait 1912

Here's a conversation-starter about Aristarkh Lentulov’s self-portrait. The whole image is broken up into geometric shapes, like the artist saw the world through a kaleidoscope. Imagine him, brush in hand, figuring out how to show himself, not in a mirror image, but as a collection of angles and planes. Each brushstroke is a decision, a little experiment in how to build a face, a body, a sense of self, from these fractured forms. What was he feeling as he put those first strokes down? Did he have a clear vision, or was it more of a back-and-forth, a give-and-take between him and the canvas? I see the influence of Cubism in the way he’s broken down the image into geometric shapes. It's like he’s in conversation with other artists, borrowing and remixing ideas to make something uniquely his own.