What Is the Truth 2016

The late Alexander Roitburd’s painting, "What is the Truth," presents us with a question, not an answer, approached through the act of painting itself. He’s working with layers of dark tones, then punctuated by areas of thick impasto. Take a look at the right side of the canvas where the texture looks almost like it's been built up with palette knives. The paint application is so physical, so present. You can feel the artist’s hand building this form, one loaded stroke at a time. In contrast, the figure on the left is rendered more smoothly, almost traditionally, but still emerges from the dark ground. This contrast between representation and abstraction, between the figure and the ground, creates tension. Like, what is emerging, what is dissolving? Roitburd reminds me of artists like Francis Picabia, who also used a wide range of styles, suggesting that art is a constant process of questioning and reinvention. Ultimately, it is about embracing the unknown.