Games with characters 1991

Vasiliy Ryabchenko made "Games with Characters" with paint on canvas, and you can tell he's having fun with the whole thing, aren’t you? Look at how the paint is applied, thin in some areas, thicker in others, almost like sketching with color. I’m drawn to the way the figures emerge from the purple background, they are not quite there but substantial and present. The artist uses white and cream tones to sculpt the forms. It reminds me of how a sculptor might work, building up volume. But then look closer, and the figures dissolve again, it is all a bit precarious and fragile. The edges of the painting are not defined, there's a looseness that speaks to artmaking as a continuous process rather than a fixed statement. Ryabchenko's work reminds me of Picasso, maybe because they both knew how to play with form and meaning, keeping us on our toes. It’s this ambiguity that keeps art alive.