Composition 1980

Vudon Baklytsky made this painted panel with a brushy touch, moving between light and dark. The painting feels like a stage set, maybe for a play that's only in the artist’s head. Look at how he builds up these layers of brown, white, and blue. It’s not exactly any place, but it feels like somewhere I’ve been in my dreams. I can imagine Baklytsky working, wrestling with the canvas, trying to pin down a feeling, a memory. Painting is like that, a conversation you have with yourself through color and form. See how the colors blend and blur? He wasn't trying to be precise, but going for something else, something more like music. It makes me think of other painters, too, like maybe Milton Avery or even some of the early expressionists, all trying to find new ways to show what's inside. It's about feeling your way through the dark.