Petersburg. Palace 1926

Boris Kustodiev made "Petersburg. Palace" with watercolor, and look at the way he lets the paint run, drip, and pool! It's like he's more interested in the process of painting than in perfectly depicting a scene. The colors are vibrant and sort of clash in a wonderful way, which gives the painting a playful, almost chaotic energy. You can almost feel him splashing and layering, making a real haptic experience out of the representation of a stage. Check out the little sun flags. They're like faces, right? A bit menacing, but also goofy. Kustodiev reminds me of someone like James Ensor, who used these kinds of absurdist figures to hint at something unsettling, even grotesque, beneath the surface of the so-called real world. In the end, it's really up to you, right? The beauty of painting is that it's always a conversation, never a final word.