Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth 2013

Alexander Roitburd painted this work titled "Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth" using oil on canvas. Immediately we notice the striking juxtaposition of figures against a dusky sky. The composition is carefully structured to draw the eye towards the intimate meeting of the two women. Roitburd’s brushwork is visible, adding a tactile quality that softens the intensity of the color palette. Here, Roitburd cleverly uses visual elements such as color and form to create a subtle tension between the sacred and the secular. The artist challenges fixed meanings, and prompts us to reconsider traditional narratives. The scene destabilizes established meanings, and values, and asks us to consider alternative interpretations. The suggestive nature of the composition and the painting's open narrative structure serves to emphasize the artwork’s ongoing capacity to be reinterpreted. The artist is reminding us that the role of art is not to provide simple answers but to provoke perpetual questioning.