Autoportrait, 1962

Dimensions: 82.5 x 60.5 cm

Physical Description: Oil on canvas

Inventory Number: 2382

Acquisition: Acquired in 2011 with support of the Städelkomitee 21. Jahrhundert, property of Städelscher Museums-Verein e.V.

Status: Not on display

Texts

About the Work

Reminiscent of Rembrandt, the palette has a confusingly premodern quality. Eugène Leroy’s paintings are walls of colour, neither abstract nor representational. It takes a closer, longer gaze to penetrate the coarse, scabby surface and sort the unfocused all-over. The ‘lost’ profile in ‘Autoportrait’ only gradually crystallises within the conglomeration of colour material. With his existentialist search for form, Leroy continued to pursue Informel for decades. It is no coincidence that Georg Baselitz was among those to discover him in the 1960s.