Autoritratto 1929

Curator: Look at this self-portrait by Bice Lazzari from 1929. It's an oil painting, relatively small, but possesses a remarkable intimacy. Editor: Intimacy is the word. She stares out as if she caught you looking, a little apprehensive perhaps, and quite modern for something painted so long ago. Curator: The muted color palette is interesting; blues and creams, really somber until that single orange necklace brings your eyes right back to her gaze. The simple dress, the dark hair pulled back. The effect is less about capturing a likeness and more about, well, capturing a feeling, a mood, would you say? Editor: Agreed. The muted tones set up a tension, which is cleverly resolved through that vivid color and those clear outlines in the upper section, while the lower section’s shapes get softened to suggest some psychological dimension. Her modernism isn’t just a style; it’s a structuring device. Note how the planes of her face are subtly carved out by these tonal variations rather than delineated with strong lines, allowing Lazzari to investigate her own identity, almost sculpting herself into being, like a self-creation, maybe? Curator: That reminds me of something she wrote later about seeing form emerge from fields of color; her mature abstraction seems nascent in the delicate modeling of this early work. Editor: Fascinating how her focus moved away from figure, eventually eliminating representation altogether. It makes me want to analyze her entire trajectory based on clues hidden here in plain sight. But, overall, beyond technical aspects and possible hidden semiotics, this is a compelling look at one's self: Lazzari stripped bare for our scrutinization, quite bravely I would add! Curator: It certainly is compelling. Each brushstroke, each carefully considered shade feels like a piece of a puzzle—or better, an authentic fragment of Bice’s inner life presented for all of us to contemplate.