Victim 1989

Vasiliy Ryabchenko's painting, Victim, looms large at 200 x 200 cm, an expansive field of red activated by gestures in white, grey, and black. I imagine Ryabchenko, lost in the throes of creation, building up layers, scraping back, maybe even attacking the canvas. There's a rawness here that I can totally relate to. The paint application is thick, almost violent, yet tender in its own way. See how the white figure seems to emerge from the red ground, a ghostly presence defined by bold, gestural strokes. I wonder if Ryabchenko, while making this, felt like he was wrestling with something, trying to pin down a feeling or an idea that kept slipping away. This piece makes me think about other painters, like Francis Bacon, who weren't afraid to confront the darker aspects of human existence. Artists are always in conversation, you know, riffing off each other, pushing the boundaries of what painting can do. They offer different ways of seeing, thinking, and experiencing the world. It is the ambiguity and uncertainty in painting which allows for so many interpretations.