Sin título 1945

Joy Hester made this untitled portrait with brush and ink on paper. It's all in the eyes, isn't it? Those thick, sad, downturned eyebrows and sideways glance, scratched out with a nervous hand. Hester must have gone at it with quick gestures, trying to capture something elusive, and, as she worked, this dude’s heavy-heartedness emerged. She wasn’t making a realistic likeness; she was painting a feeling, a state of mind. I can imagine her in her studio, late at night, the only light coming from a single bulb, the ink thick and viscous, smelling a bit like chemicals and sea. Dipping the brush, pulling it across the page, again and again, trying to get it right. Painters are always in conversation with one another, across time and space. Hester was influenced by German Expressionism and Surrealism, but she brought her own raw, unflinching vision to the mix. She made art out of emotion, which is maybe the hardest thing to do.