FOTOMATONES, 2009

Twelve faces, six boards, endless readings. These oil diptychs—each panel holding two portraits—compose a fragmented chorus of masculine identities. Created around 1990 by an unknown artist, the series operates on the edge of recognition and disappearance. Are these self-portraits? Prisoners? Ghosts? The repetition is deliberate but unstable, suggesting a process of becoming rather than being.

The artist’s anonymity deepens the work’s resonance. Freed from biographical narrative, the viewer is left with pure tension: between gesture and silence, surface and psyche. Some figures stare back with clarity; others dissolve into raw brushwork and tonal ambiguity. The chromatic scale moves from oxidized ochres to near-monochrome greys and greens, each diptych a distinct emotional register.

While each board stands alone (37.5 × 52.5 cm), the proposed composition—two panels per row, three rows total—transforms the six into a single modular portrait. Installed together, the work measures 112.5 × 105 cm. The display echoes the format of a contact sheet, a photobooth, or a fragmented iconostasis. No frame binds them yet; the decision remains open, charged with curatorial potential.

In Darwin, we present them as a complete, unresolved entity: twelve unnamed faces that do not form a whole—but something more haunting.

Technical Sheet

• Object: Fotomatones (set of 6 diptychs)
• Title: Twelve Faces Without a Name
• Artist / Author: Unknown
• Date: c. 1990
• Technique / Printing Method: Oil painting
• Medium / Materials: Oil on board
• Edition: Unique works (6 boards / 12 portraits)
• Signed: No
• Framing: Unframed (ideal for unified hanging)
• Dimensions: Each panel 37.5 × 52.5 cm
• Total Dimensions (proposed layout): 112.5 × 105 cm (3 rows of 2 diptychs)
• Condition: Excellent, with expressive surface variation
• Provenance: Private Collection