Untitled - Early November 1961

Lucas Samaras's drawings represent surreal figures inhabiting a realm between sleeping and waking. The toothlike forms framing the mouth in the frontal portrait also define the eyes, correlating these features as sources of entry into the body. As self-portraits in an ongoing process of self-examination, Samaras's pastels embody different emotional and mental states in their bright, expressive colors, intended to motivate introspection also in the viewer. Such pastels inspired the Polaroid photo-transformations which he produced in the 1970s and which are well-represented in The Art Institute of Chicago's photography collection.