Portrait with gold 2018

Sergey Piskunov made this oil painting, ‘Portrait with gold,’ most likely in his studio. I imagine he began by mixing delicate hues of pink and grey to capture the nuanced skin tones of the model, and then carefully and methodically applying the gold leaf. I'm wondering, was he thinking about Gustav Klimt, about Byzantine icons, or maybe about the fleeting beauty of youth and how it’s often gilded and fetishized? The gold leaf isn't seamlessly integrated; it's almost haphazardly applied, creating a fractured effect across the skin. It's a visually striking contrast, kind of like a dialogue between control and chance. There's a tension here between the smooth, almost photographic realism of the portrait and the disruptive, decorative quality of the gold. Painters are magpies, we steal from each other across the ages. I reckon that we’re all trying to figure out something about how to make our mark in the world.