Self-Portrait with Wife 1908

Frantisek Kupka made this painting, Self-Portrait with Wife, on canvas with oil paints. Look at the way he's used small strokes of color to build up the forms, the way the pinks and whites of her dress almost blend into her skin. It makes you think about painting as a process of layering, of building up an image through touch. The paint is applied pretty thinly, almost translucent in places, which gives it a feeling of light and air. You can see the texture of the canvas coming through, especially in the background. And then there are these thicker dabs of paint, like around her face and the folds of her dress, that catch the light and give the painting depth. Notice his hands! The long fingers and the strange positioning; it tells a story of a working artist who is also a thinker. This reminds me a little of Vuillard, that sense of intimacy and everyday life. But Kupka's got this edge to him, like he's pushing at the boundaries of representation, even in a relatively conventional portrait like this one. It's like he's saying, "There's more to seeing than just what's on the surface."