Dec 17, 2014
Dec 19, 2006
Dec 17, 2014

Untitled

Untitled

2001

Till Freiwald

(German, b. 1963)

Watercolor over graphite

Support: White wove paper

Sheet: 76.8 x 54 cm (30 1/4 x 21 1/4 in.)

Gift of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery 2002.13

Location

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.

See also
Collection: 
DR - German
Department: 
Drawings
Type of artwork: 
Drawing

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