Self Portrait 1940

Augustus John painted this oil self-portrait with a tangible energy. The brushwork is really visible, a kind of dance between intention and accident, where the paint seems to almost apply itself. You can really see the hand of the artist in the layers of paint, especially in the feverish strokes around the face and the almost violently applied daubs of white in the beard. There's this back-and-forth between the creamy, blended tones of the skin and the raw, untouched texture of the canvas. It's like he's building up the image, then scraping it back, a push-pull that gives the face this incredible depth and weight. Look at the blue of his shirt. See how it's both flat and dimensional, a field of color that also manages to convey the folds and creases of fabric? There's something very modern about that, a willingness to embrace ambiguity over easy answers. I think of someone like Manet, who made the surface of the painting as important as the subject itself. This piece is less a window and more of a mirror, reflecting not just an image, but a process.