top of page
richcmather

Portrait, Or: Idea of a Body without Organs: 'Face Value'

Updated: Nov 20



Portrait, Or: Idea of a Body without Organs

By Richard Mather


[Part 1 of a work-in-progress]


Face Value

 

Before the artist the subject sits.

He is still and he waits.

Of individual traits — hair (brown);

chin (prominent); fingers

(slim, clasped); shirt (smart, white) —

the artist takes no account,

makes no measure. Features pass

into one another, saturating

a surface that precedes

the contour, which precedes the part.

Where the septum ends

and the lip begins is a mere degree.

The cheekbone doesn’t appear

in isolation; it is seen in light

of the jawbone. The hands carry

with them the arms, as the cuffs

must appear with the sleeves.

Without division or interval,

the body appears as pure form

over content, surface without depth.

For the artist, the subject before him

is an object understood, clearly

— as one and at once.

 


Recent Posts

See All

The Potato Eaters

By Richard Mather Potato eaters – five peasant women, clothed in rags, seated round a square table in a brown room. The scene is set....

Allure

By Richard Mather Allured by the oil lamp suspended from a beam, a yellow shell moth flits and flashes. Light and wing make contact....

Fichte / Picture

By Richard Mather There is nothing real anywhere, neither outside of us nor in us. I know of no being at all. Not even myself. Images...

Kommentare


bottom of page