Retrato

Description

In Retrato, Avakian brings gestural intensity into an image where the figure appears as a frontal and overflowing presence. The face is built through stains, black marks, reds, yellows and blues that do not seek to define a fixed identity, but rather to activate an emotional presence.

The work treats portraiture as a zone of tension between body and painting. Features emerge from the matter, distort and hold themselves through an intense gaze, as the image seems to capture less an appearance than an inner state in full expansion.

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Oil on canvas

2008

130 x 100 cm

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Signed and dated.