Deterrence 1988

Vasiliy Ryabchenko's painting, "Deterrence," presents two cat-like figures rendered with gestural strokes in muted tones of red and grey. I can imagine the artist building up the image, layering translucent washes, and then wiping them back to create ghostly shapes. I wonder, what was he thinking when he created these almost ethereal creatures in the painting, poised in a moment of tense confrontation? Maybe Ryabchenko empathizes with the animals; like us, they are driven by instinct and emotion. The texture of the paint is smooth, with thin layers allowing the grey underpainting to shine through, creating a misty atmosphere. The way he handles the paint reminds me a little of Gerhard Richter's blurred photographs, transforming the familiar into something ambiguous and unsettling. Look at the way Ryabchenko uses subtle gradations of tone to suggest form and volume. You can feel how each brushstroke speaks to a moment of decision-making, adjusting, correcting, and refining until the image comes into focus. Through this exchange of ideas, he shows us the way that embodied expression, rooted in intuition and feeling, can lead to unexpected discoveries.