Yesterdays excursion: (Austrian) Facing The Modern at the National Gallery. Here, my fave,Teresa Ries, self portrait- resonates with her absent physical presence- her brush strokes, the work her paint has made are all there, as she stood close up to it to make it, like I do to see it; but the mirror is long gone, and so is she, and so will we . Everything was against her doing what she did, being who she was- female, Jewish, a Russian in Austria. Her face says ‘Get on with it! You have work to do.’