Self Portrait 1887

Curator: Standing before us is Vincent van Gogh's "Self Portrait," created in 1887. Editor: My first impression is of a vibrant, almost restless energy. The colors pop, but there’s a kind of rawness in the brushstrokes. It feels immediate. Curator: The thick application of oil paint, a technique known as impasto, really gives the piece a tangible, textured quality. It emphasizes the materiality of the work itself. How does that resonate with you? Editor: The impasto is crucial. It isn't just about the subject matter but how that yellow pigment is physically applied to create light and form. His use of complementary colors is key, with the yellows of the hat and face offset against the blues in the shirt and background, establishing formal unity across the picture. Curator: Exactly. The yellow ochre that dominates this image was becoming much more readily available because of innovations in pigment creation and transportation networks across Europe at this point. Also, there is speculation about the hat in this painting - he depicts himself not as the intellectual artist he so yearned to be, but as more of a peasant worker. Editor: A deliberately humble presentation then, countering the bourgeois norms? Yet the composition—the upward gaze, the confident, confrontational directness—hints at something more complex. I note the circular brushstrokes, their repetition implies constant motion or reflection, creating an intense psychological mood. Curator: Absolutely, the painting process as performative record, something embedded in the creation that reveals character through physical action, the building-up and application of paint! Also consider that artists' self-portraits were increasingly marketable objects and were used as advertisement; to be displayed in galleries, purchased by collectors or sold amongst peers in exchange of goods, service and access. Editor: I see the balance of labor and the conceptual concerns through careful attention to form. Ultimately, I walk away from it feeling moved by its visual intensity, how the raw energy is harnessed by those structural dynamics of line, colour, and form. Curator: The fact that his is but one of many many self-portraits, these pieces show him as a self-sufficient craftsman working with affordable and abundant modern materials to create work with an agenda!