In 1980 Clemente painted a series of small self portraits, rendering himself in unusual situations. Here, Clemente portrayed himself with red markings that look like acne or an inflammation like the measles. These marks, however, are not deeply ingrained in the skin but almost float above it, creating a decorative pattern on the canvas. The red marks across the blue background and shirt do seem to penetrate the surface and make multiple fleshy sores, which also look like small flowers.
        In this work, Clemente bridges the gap between the figurative and the abstract, an assumed dichotomy that has so often dominated twentieth-century art and practice and theory.