Still Life. Checkers and oranges. 1916

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this painting, Still Life, with checkers and oranges, using oil on canvas. I look at that orange, sitting there, and I think about all the work, the labor it takes to make a painting look this off-hand. Look at how the objects jostle for space, leaning in, pushing past one another. I imagine Konchalovsky working fast, improvising, responding, and counter-responding to the forms in front of him. The colour is earthy, but it still feels so alive. That pitcher in the background – you can see it’s been added, subtracted, and added again. There are so many layers, so much over-painting. He probably got to the point where he didn’t care how the painting looked, he just wanted to wrestle it into being. Painters are always in conversation with other painters, always looking, stealing, and remixing ideas. And that’s how we keep the conversation going.