USSR gymnasts 1961

Dmitri Zhilinsky made this painting, "USSR Gymnasts," with oil paint, a scene alive with figures on a red ground. Imagine him there, in his studio, maybe listening to some intense Shostakovich, trying to capture the tension, the anticipation before the big meet. The bodies of the athletes in their pale leotards are solid and present, but almost like they're floating against this sea of red. Look at the one in the front rubbing his hands as if preparing for a competition. Are those thin lines and stripes in the background a deliberate mark-making, a material intervention, or an indecision? The cool detachment in Zhilinsky’s brushstrokes, the formal construction, and the lack of painterly “feeling” are all part of the mood. What can be learned from this moment of quiet before the storm? It seems to say that the internal processes are as meaningful as the external events. It reminds me of other artists preoccupied with structure and order in the face of chaos. The act of painting is so much about trying to get your head around things, isn't it?