Lyudochka 2008

Alexander Roitburd painted Lyudochka with oils in a flurry of colour, gesture, and feeling. The surface of the painting comes alive. It’s tactile and the colours vibrate. I imagine Roitburd making this painting, and getting lost in it. I see him thinking about touch, about colour, about how to make a person come alive on the canvas with flowers bursting all around, too. The red gloves are a curious touch! What does it mean to be in the world? What does it mean to really see a person? You can sense him responding to a lineage of great artists. Think of Matisse, Bonnard, and other painters who weren’t afraid of colour, and were willing to be bold. Painters are in an ongoing conversation, inspiring each other across time. It’s like they’re handing over a baton, or whispering secrets! Painting is a process, a journey, an unfolding, and artists embrace ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations, never fixing meaning.