If there is no Water in the Tap, then Klichko have drunk 2011

Alexander Roitburd’s painting, "If there is no Water in the Tap, then Klichko have drunk" emerges out of earthy hues and deliberate strokes. I imagine him at work, layering the paint, adjusting, maybe even wiping away parts to build these two figures from the ground up. There's a real weight to the paint here, a kind of physicality that makes you think about the artist's hand, the pressure of the brush. Look at the way the light catches the figures; it’s almost sculptural. The man adjusting his head covering and the other one looking at us, perhaps they are looking at each other? I wonder if Roitburd was thinking about Rembrandt, or maybe even Soutine, when he made this? I mean, all painters are looking back, borrowing, riffing off each other, right? For me, the real juice is the painting’s surface. It’s in that push and pull of trying to make something solid out of something as unstable as paint, that things become so interesting. It's an ongoing conversation between artists across time, and an invitation to add your voice to the mix.