Untitled 

Curator: Looking at this abstract expressionist matter painting by Tiberiy Szilvashi, a thick, almost velvety monochromatic plane of dark red pulls you in. What are your immediate thoughts? Editor: It's remarkably subdued. The impasto application creates a textural field, but the limited color palette keeps the surface calm. It’s an interesting tension between material exuberance and chromatic restraint. Curator: The monochrome is striking, a consistent red echoing ancient frescoes and the symbolism often associated with the color, from passion to sacrifice. The texture hints at layers beneath the surface, perhaps histories or buried emotions rising to meet the viewer. Editor: Semiotically, the redness operates as both presence and absence. It signifies the material reality of the painting—the sheer pigment and impasto—while simultaneously dissolving into the absence of identifiable forms. I see areas of higher density that suggest submerged shapes. Curator: Yes, areas that almost form landscapes in themselves. Consider how red has historically represented blood, life force, and the spirit in various cultures. Szilvashi uses this historical context to subtly evoke deeper narratives, even within such an abstract framework. Do you see a relationship with the artist’s background in Ukraine? Editor: A compelling proposition! Focusing purely on form, there is no traditional, landscape horizon. It almost presents as a study in figure/ground relationships rendered ambiguous by texture and color alone. Its beauty lies precisely in this ambiguity; the materiality disrupts clean readings. Curator: The ambiguity invites individual projections. It operates as a mirror reflecting the viewer’s inner landscape, anxieties, or hopes onto the artwork, facilitated by the powerful cultural connotations of the colour and material. Editor: I appreciate how our distinct analyses ultimately arrive at a similar understanding—that this “Untitled” canvas operates through its careful deployment of textural density to play against a severe reduction of formal elements. Curator: Exactly. And by understanding the potent history of red, our viewers can form their own narratives through that same deployment.