Self-Portrait (Mon Visage Peut-Être)
ca. 1959 - 61
Born to a noble family in Kiev, Russia, Graham served in the Circassian Regiment before the revolution. He came to New York in 1920 and studied painting. Abstraction, realism, fauvism, and surrealism all captured his attention.
During bouts of depression, Graham like to portray himself as a superhuman warrior. In a journal from the mid-1940s, he made notes about the violent and vitally active Slavic temperament, presumably thinking of himself: "It is mystic, spiritual, fatalistic, with occaisional classicism." This occult self-portrait brings many of these themes together.
Graphite, ink, tape, paper, cardboard
15 7/8 x 13 5/8 in. (40.4 x 34.6 cm)
Gift of the Estate of Mark Tobey
87.41
