Portrait of Milka Peykova 1961

This is a portrait of Milka Peykova by Georgi Kovachev, and it's got this great directness. The colors are simple, almost like they were mixed from what was left on the palette – a warm orange backdrop, blacks and browns for the figure. You can tell Kovachev wasn't trying to be fussy or detailed. Look closely, and you can see the hand of the artist everywhere, in the way the paint is dragged across the surface, or in the way the hair is made up of these chunky strokes of black. There's this honesty about the marks, like he's saying, "Here's how I see this person, no secrets." It's not about perfect representation; it's about the act of seeing and feeling. The way he layers those colors in the figure's clothing is particularly cool, with that hint of the orange ground coming through. Kovachev reminds me a bit of Fairfield Porter, in the way he finds the extraordinary in the everyday. He shows us that painting is not just about what you see, but about how you see it, and that’s a conversation that never gets old.