Werner Tübke

In this self-portrait of 1963, a detached Tübke sits with his arms crossed over his chest in front of a pale-blue background. The artist densely worked his facial features with short, controlled hatching using a graphite pencil. He employed a sparser approach when sketching his shirt, which he modeled with mostly longer, lighter strokes. The coloristic emphasis on his small cap is balanced only by the pink accents on the lower portion of his sleeves. The portrait-bust format, the artist’s pose, and the mannered right hand with knotted knuckles are all self-conscious evocations of Renaissance prototypes. Tübke repeatedly explored self-portraiture throughout his career, creating some 140 such works.