Self-portrait 1909

This self-portrait by Martiros Sarian, sitting in Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery, must have been painted with oils and a real urgency. Look at those strokes of yellow and red radiating around his face, like an aura, or maybe a desert heat haze. I can almost feel Sarian standing there, brush in hand, staring intently at himself in the mirror. He seems to be asking, ‘Who are you really?’ The blue outlines give his features a kind of fractured, Cubist feel. They seem to highlight a certain tension and perhaps a touch of melancholy. The lines create form and shadow, but are also expressive marks in their own right. What do you think he was thinking when he painted this? Perhaps about his artistic heroes, about Cezanne and Van Gogh? This portrait feels like a conversation, a painterly dialogue across time. It reminds us that artists are always looking, always learning from one another, and always striving to find their own unique voice.