The eye first glides over this red-orange face, as if caught in a web of texts and lines. John Beckley here composes a dense surface of overlapping newspaper clippings, where headlines, columns and fragments of images create a fragmented urban landscape. Over this, large black and white gestures cross the composition diagonally, with splashes and quick strokes giving the whole a sonic energy. The portrait remains partial, interrupted by these lines and by dark areas that partly mask it. The eye moves restlessly between the readable words, the torn areas and this face that appears and disappears in the midst of organized chaos.
