Ljubica

‘It may be that I am attracted to the human “map” contained within a face,’ says Serbian artist Jelena Lubajic, ‘and the layers of its skin – a bodily margin that bridges the distance between the inner and the outer’. Ljubica and Alise Lange (lot 79) are examples of Lubajic’s fantastically detailed and empathetic monochrome portraits of elderly subjects. The countenance of Ljubica looms almost three metres in height, while Alise Lange is closer to life-size. In both works, every wrinkle, furrow and fold of skin is carefully studied and vividly realised; the subtleties of expression in the women’s eyes and mouths, and even the glimpsed patterns and weaves of their clothing, bring to life an extraordinary depth of charisma and experience. The relative size of the works is important to Lubajic’s conception of the face as a border between interior and exterior life. ‘I am trying to find a scale that demands a particular intimacy of proximity,’ she says, ‘and brings the viewer to an actual or illusional “kissing distance” to the face of the other depicted in the painting, or even acts as an invitation to touch the surface / skin of the painting’. In a refreshing departure from a visual culture obsessed with youth and smooth perfection, Lubajic’s works celebrate the wealth of beauty, soul and character in the faces of the aged.