Portrait 1962

Vilen Barsky made this unnamed portrait with paint on what looks like paper, and you can tell he had a blast doing it! The mark-making is super bold, like he’s carving out the face with strokes of color, and the palette—browns, reds, greens and grays—is just muted enough to feel a little unsettling, or, maybe, a bit mischievous. I'm drawn to the mouth, or rather, the lines that stand in for a mouth. They're thick and graphic, like bars, but they also suggest a wide, toothy grin. The red daubs on the cheeks amplify the sense of joy and also hint at something a bit manic. Barsky's work reminds me of Red Grooms, maybe because of that shared sense of playfulness and the willingness to push representation to the edge of abstraction. It’s a reminder that art doesn't need to be perfect to be powerful; in fact, sometimes it’s the imperfections that make it truly sing.