Nizhny Novgorod 1925

Aristarkh Lentulov made this painting of Nizhny Novgorod, with what looks like oil paint. It’s a beautiful, fractured vista rendered in a palette of blues, greens, yellows, pinks and browns. I wonder what it was like for Lentulov to paint this; maybe standing on a hill outside the city, trying to capture its essence in a way that felt modern and true. He’s really broken down the forms into these bold geometric shapes. Look at the way he’s used blues and greens to define the hills in the foreground, contrasting with the yellows and pinks of the buildings. That archway, daubed with blue, is like a portal into another dimension. It makes me think of other artists who were pushing the boundaries of representation, like Cézanne or the Cubists. You can see the city in the background like a pink and yellow mirage. Painters are always riffing off one another and imagining new ways of seeing. This painting is a testament to the power of the artist's eye to transform the world.