Still life 1960

Kateryna Bilokur made this untitled still life with paint and paper, and when you look at it, what strikes me is the way the shapes are made with patient, loving detail. It’s like she’s showing us the very essence of each fruit and vegetable. There’s a humble quality to her work, an honesty in her approach. The colors are earthy, vibrant, and she captures the textures so well—you can almost feel the roughness of the watermelon skin or the smoothness of an apple. Zooming in on that big brown loaf of bread in the upper left, there’s a network of lines and marks, carefully layered, that bring to mind the cracks in a dry riverbed. That little area alone feels like a world within a world. Bilokur reminds me of Henri Rousseau in her directness and her love of simple, everyday subjects. Like Rousseau, she invites us to see the extraordinary in the ordinary and to appreciate the beauty of the world around us. It’s a reminder that art doesn’t always have to be complicated to be profound.