Mixed media on linen, 2012, 61 x 56 CM

A Profile That Breaks the Silence
In this work by Mart Visser, the head is shown in profile a rare and striking choice within his oeuvre. Where Visser’s portraits are often frontal and confront the viewer directly, this face turns away instead. The head is built from shadows, gestures, and interruptions that overlap and gradually dissolve. Facial features are only partially recognizable and seem to shift as you look. What begins as a face slowly transforms into a play of light and dark. The restrained black-and-white palette reinforces a sense of distance and focus. By choosing a profile view, the work avoids confrontation and creates a moment of quiet introspection as if the figure is briefly withdrawn into itself.

Gesture, Material, and Quiet Tension
The work is set against a light background, allowing the darker paint to stand out clearly. The paint is applied thinly and directly, with visible traces of the hand. Nothing has been smoothed over or corrected; this openness gives the image a vulnerable, human quality. The solid black wooden frame provides a calm and steady boundary, holding the fleeting image together. Between the loose, almost vanishing portrait and this firm enclosure, a subtle tension emerges. This is contemporary figurative art that does not try to explain itself, but gently invites the viewer to pause. The portrait does not look back, but seems turned inward and that is precisely why it draws you in, again and again.