With a Dead Owl

A self-portrait of the artist at an elderly age – his face is concealed behind an owl lying in the foreground, his nose seems to be inhaling the smell of the feathers and wings. The penetrating eyes with raised brows and the gaze from over the glasses establish contact with the viewer. On the right side of the frame, there is a female half-profile, and all of this is inscribed into a curtly handled landscape with a high horizon. The nostalgia of passing away combines here with a desire to make history a source of strength, in the sense of remaining faithful to one's intuition. Despite being formally different from Joseph Beuys's performance piece How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare (1965), this etching entails a similar concept of seeking support in the wisdom of nature. [A. Markowska]