Composition № 349 1994

Ivan Marchuk made this painting called Composition № 349, and what strikes me is this insane layering of lines, a web of browns, whites, and blues, punctuated by hits of red and a vertical stripe. Imagine the hand of the artist here, each stroke a deliberate act, building, shifting, emerging. I feel like I'm looking at a landscape from a bird's eye view, or maybe a microscopic view of something organic, like cells or veins. There is so much visual information – the paint isn't super thick, but the layering gives it this incredible texture, a topography of marks. The yellow shape anchors everything. Is it a path? A river? This piece reminds me of other painters who build up surfaces, like Guston or Auerbach, except with more control. It's like Marchuk is having a conversation with them, pushing the boundaries of what paint can do, showing us a new way of seeing. It's an open-ended question, a space for your imagination to run wild.