Description

Freiwald's approach to painting portraits is unique. Working as other artists have for centuries, he paints small-scale sketches and studies of his subject from a live model. But then, breaking from tradition, he dispenses with the model, sets his studies aside, and executes his monumental watercolors solely from memory. In this way, Freiwald creates a work that seems simultaneously realistic and dreamlike. Untitled is reminiscent of a passport picture, but Freiwald used a successive series of watercolor washes to impart an otherworldly glow to the figure's simplified features. A contemplative portrait, Untitled is equally expressive of the mind of the artist. The drawing encourages reflection on the nature of portraiture, identity, and personal memory.