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Mark Grotjahn — "The ‘Face Paintings’ allow me to express myself in a way that the ‘Butterflies’ don’t. I have an idea as to what sort of face is going to happen when I do a ‘Face Painting,’ but I don’t exactly know what color it will take, or how many eyes it’s going to have, whereas the ‘Butterflies’ are fairly planned out. They’re still intuitive, but I generally know where they are going. It’s a different kind of freedom, a different kind of expressionism. It’s personal without being overtly personal."
Mark Grotjahn

"The ‘Face Paintings’ allow me to express myself in a way that the ‘Butterflies’ don’t. I have an idea as to what sort of face is going to happen when I do a ‘Face Painting,’ but I don’t exactly know what color it will take, or how many eyes it’s going to have, whereas the ‘Butterflies’ are fairly planned out. They’re still intuitive, but I generally know where they are going. It’s a different kind of freedom, a different kind of expressionism. It’s personal without being overtly personal."

Mark Grotjahn's oil on linen work belongs to his celebrated "Face Paintings" series, in which abstracted facial forms emerge through gestural, layered brushwork. Unlike his more methodical "Butterfly" compositions, these works embrace a raw spontaneity, allowing color, line, and form to evolve organically on the canvas. The result is a deeply expressive yet enigmatic image that hovers between figuration and abstraction, revealing an intimate artistic voice without explicit personal disclosure.

Medium
oil on linen
Spotted At
Auction House · Phillips

🔨 Auction Lot

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

November 11, 2013

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2003

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2018

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Spotted works by Mark Grotjahn

✦

Alex Capecelatro

1 spotted

About this work

Mark Grotjahn, "The ‘Face Paintings’ allow me to express myself in a way that the ‘Butterflies’ don’t. I have an idea as to what sort of face is going to happen when I do a ‘Face Painting,’ but I don’t exactly know what color it will take, or how many eyes it’s going to have, whereas the ‘Butterflies’ are fairly planned out. They’re still intuitive, but I generally know where they are going. It’s a different kind of freedom, a different kind of expressionism. It’s personal without being overtly personal."

Mark Grotjahn's oil on linen work belongs to his celebrated "Face Paintings" series, in which abstracted facial forms emerge through gestural, layered brushwork. Unlike his more methodical "Butterfly" compositions, these works embrace a raw spontaneity, allowing color, line, and form to evolve organically on the canvas. The result is a deeply expressive yet enigmatic image that hovers between figuration and abstraction, revealing an intimate artistic voice without explicit personal disclosure.

Medium
oil on linen
Seen at
Phillips, New York, London, Hong Kong

Related themes

Living Artist, Face Painting, Figurative Abstraction, Male Artist, Contemporary Artist, American Artist, Abstract Expressionism, Gestural Abstraction, 21st Century, Oil On Linen, Expressive Portraiture

More works by Mark Grotjahn

Collected by

Alex Capecelatro