Caspian Sea Today (Central Part of the Triptych) 2007

Tahir Salahov made this central panel of his triptych, Caspian Sea Today, with oil paint. You can tell Salahov was interested in the act of building up an image as a process. The colours—muted blues, oranges and browns—feel like the result of layers being laid down, altered, and then left to settle. The texture of the paint feels very physical, almost sculptural, as if the painting itself is a structure, like the oil rig in the image. My eye is drawn to the brushstrokes forming the sea around the base of the rig. These marks are really present, not trying to trick you into seeing water, but instead making you think about the making of a painting. This reminds me of Gerhard Richter’s paintings of clouds. They are both very different, but I think there’s something about this focus on the mechanics of painting, this interest in the materiality of the medium, that connects them.