Self-Portrait c. 1926

Edmund Kesting’s self-portrait is like a fleeting thought captured in monochrome. He’s holding a pipe, a plume of smoke curling upwards, blurring the edges of his face. I imagine Kesting in his studio, the air thick with the aroma of tobacco, experimenting with light and shadow. Maybe he was thinking about the way smoke can obscure and reveal at the same time, a metaphor for the complexities of self-representation. The sharp diagonal of the pipe cuts across the frame, dividing the composition. It’s so striking. What does it mean? Painters often use self-portraiture to explore their own identity, but it’s also a way of engaging with the history of painting. Think of Rembrandt, and all the paintings he made of himself, and how he used shadow to create mood. Each artist builds on what came before. Kesting is in that conversation, adding his own voice. These little moments of exchange across time are how artists keep each other alive.