Essay on Holtzman's Self-Portraits: Artistry in Textures & Friendships

The exhibition of Holtzman's self-portrait paintings represents unique ideas that are hidden behind the images. Holtzman's paintings portray the subject that is inclined towards a family and friend ordeal or a deadpan (Kottasz and Bennett, 2018). Holtzman's close friends like the Todd Oldham, and comedian Amy Sedaris transpire in the painted marbles less as figures rather than matters of texture. His unique painting techniques bring the attention of many people towards his piece of art.

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The Holtzman' paintings are made up of varieties of colors, black, white, red, green, yellow, pink, blue and gray. The colors are put at different positions of the image hence making the self-portrait to be very decorative and appealing to the eye (Kottasz and Bennett, 2018). The existence of numerous colors in the artwork makes it difficult to substantiate and identify the background color of the paintings. White color is used for the front face of the self-portrait to depict purity and to enhance the visibility of the face. Grey color is used as the color of the inlaid shell that covers most bodies of the paintings. The even combination of different colors on the painting makes the object to have some sense of dynamism. Moreover, light colors appear on different parts of the self-portrait thus making it depict some sense of energy and presence.

The work colorfully represents the image of self-portrait just as depicted in a real-life situation. However, Holtzman's makes use of varied colors in his artwork. The image of the self-portrait is painted with blue, red, yellow, white and green colors. Holtzman uses gray and light blue colors to emphasize the self-portrait's hairs in the painting hence making it dominant.

Holtzman uses implied lines to draw the eyes of the viewer towards his piece of artwork. The lines are a stand of self-portrait's hairs that makes eyes of the viewers to be directed towards the left bottom and middle since they are moving in each of these directions. The portrait's hair moves towards the bottom of the image, leftwards near its face. The hair bundle takes the left direction but not entirely since there is a space there. Though the emptiness is asymmetrically balanced by the portrait's gaze towards the left bottom and some light colors are used in the space. The visually light color on the space, therefore, does not affect the face of the portrait.

The artworks are also made up of various shapes since they are two-dimension figures. Majority of the shapes are made of lines and shifts in colors. For example, the portrait's hair is made by shifts from white to red. The form of the hair shape is further given by lines that outline the hair of the portrait at some places. Holtzman, therefore, makes use of both shifts in color and lines interchangeably to bring certain aspects of look.

The placement of the self-portrait's hair and certain hair curves bring into light some feeling of motion. One hair bundle is placed at the left while the other one is placed at the right. The hair is curved towards the chicks indicating some movements as if the hair is gently being blown by the wind.

It is therefore evident that artwork can be used to convey varied meanings that can suit different situations in life. Holtzman uses different painting techniques to portray varied meaning on the self-portrait. He uses varied colors such as black, white, red, green, yellow, pink, blue and gray to portray different aspects of life. He makes the uniform blending of the color in his artwork to form patterns that are appealing to the viewer's eyes (Holtzman, 2019). He further uses a specific color to emphasize some aspects of the painting. For example, he uses white colors on the face of the self-portrait to emphasize purity. This makes the artwork to be rich in information can be consumed by people at levels.

References

Holtzman, J. (2019). Joseph Holtzman Six Recent Paintings [Oil on marble]. New York: http://belami.info/8.html.

Kottasz, R., & Bennett, R. (2018). Factors affecting visual artists' levels of commitment to artwork distributors. Arts Marketing: An International Journal, 3(1), 21-40. DOI: 10.1108/20442081311327147