Portrait of Ferruccio Busoni 1916

Max Oppenheimer made this portrait of Ferruccio Busoni, and it’s a painting about process, right from the get-go. The way the paint is applied, it's all about the gesture, the movement of the hand. Look closely at the hands on the keyboard; you can feel the energy of the performance, the dynamism of the music almost comes alive. The color palette is dark, a near monochrome, but within that, there's so much variation, so much modulation. It's like Oppenheimer is wrestling with the material, trying to capture something elusive. And that ambiguity is powerful. It reminds me a little of Kokoschka, that same intensity, that same willingness to let the paint do its thing. Ultimately, art is a conversation, an exchange of ideas across time, and it's up to us to keep that conversation going.