Composition 1960

Valerii Lamakh made this painting, 'Composition', using paint on what looks like a scrap of canvas or heavy paper. The colors are vibrant, and the painting feels like a real process, marks on top of marks, changes, erasures. The paint is applied in layers, some areas thick and opaque, others thin and translucent, so you can see the under layers. You can see these really playful graphic marks over on the left of the painting. There are these scribbled lines and dots that could be writing or just pure abstract marks. They remind me of Cy Twombly, or even a kind of free-form graffiti. I love how they contrast with the bolder, more solid shapes in the center, especially that red shape with the black "Z" inside. It’s all sort of childlike and sophisticated at the same time. I find myself thinking of other painters who embraced this kind of raw, expressive approach, like Jean-Michel Basquiat. Ultimately, Lamakh's 'Composition' is one of those paintings that embraces ambiguity. It's a reminder that art is an ongoing conversation.