Portrait of the Regisseur Alexander Tairov 1920

Aristarkh Lentulov made Portrait of the Regisseur Alexander Tairov in oil paint, though the precise date isn't known. Look at the way Lentulov builds the image through faceted planes of color. He treats the surface as a field of interlocking forms. It's like Cubism, but wilder, looser. You sense the act of painting as an almost frantic process, a searching for form. There's something about the surface texture that gets me. The way the brushstrokes are visible, like a map of the artist's hand moving across the canvas. See how he builds up the color in Tairov's face? He uses these thick, almost sculptural dabs of paint, as if trying to capture not just the likeness, but the very essence of the man. Each stroke feels like a decision, a risk taken. Lentulov reminds me a bit of Franz Marc, especially in his use of color to evoke emotion. There's an expressiveness here that transcends mere representation. It's a painting that embraces ambiguity, inviting us to see the world in a new way.