Portrait of a film director Ruben Simonov 1939

Martiros Sarian painted this portrait of Ruben Simonov with confident brushstrokes in 1935. Look at how the subject sits—upright, alert, framed by this riot of floral abstraction. Imagine Sarian at work, building up the figure with layers of thin, washy paint, a bit like watercolors but with more body, more guts. The shirt is a symphony of blues, greys and whites. It’s not just white, you know? The face, though, is where it gets real. There's a seriousness, a weight in the eyes, as if Simonov is carrying the weight of the world or a heavy film project. Sarian doesn't try to hide that. And then, BAM!, there's the background, a crazy quilt of colors. It’s like Sarian is saying, "Life is messy, life is beautiful, life is complicated." And maybe that’s what it felt like to be a film director, too.