Selbstportrait 1959

Cuno Amiet made this self-portrait in paint, but the specific year is not known. Looking at Amiet's face emerging from this swarm of brushstrokes, I wonder how many layers it took him to arrive here. The paint is applied in strokes, one laid carefully next to the other, that must have been repeated and adjusted many times. You can see the way he blends colors into each other with marks that create the overall form. It must have taken patience and an openness to improvisation. I wonder what he was thinking when he painted this? Was he trying to capture a likeness, or was it more about the act of seeing and feeling himself? Painting a portrait is an intimate act, a conversation between the artist and their subject. It sits in the tradition of Rembrandt and Van Gogh. I think of all the artists through time talking to each other. You get a sense of this conversation happening in this painting.