60 x 120 cm, Acrylic on canvasIn “Miss Rosi” (2005), Sabina Bockemühl reveals an early phase of her painterly exploration of physiognomy, age and dignity. The portrait is defined by its radical cropping – an extreme close-up that presents the face almost larger than life. The eyes are closed, the expression turned inward, almost absent – and yet imbued with a quiet dignity. The monochrome yellow palette, interspersed with broken ochre tones and reddish shadows, makes the image shimmer as if in a single, concentrated tone of light. The large glasses – iconic, transparent, painted with impasto – act as a visual membrane: they both separate and connect the inner and outer world of the sitter. Unlike Bockemühl’s later works, which play more with ornament, urbanity and hybrid techniques, “Miss Rosi” is painterly and concentrated, physically close, almost unprotected. In its directness the work recalls Lucian Freud or Alice Neel – yet without their unsparing gesture. Instead, Bockemühl lends her protagonist a quiet sublimity, carried by color, skin, texture and a self-chosen withdrawal from the gaze of the world.
