Departure of the Queen of Sheba 2013

Alexander Roitburd made this oil painting, Departure of the Queen of Sheba, with what looks like a pretty dry brush, those oil pigments dragged across the canvas. He's using a muted palette, mostly greys and browns, so even the flesh tones feel earthy, like they're rising up from the ground. I'm struck by the way the painting seems to be crumbling before our eyes, or maybe solidifying, like these figures are caught between myth and reality. Look at the way the water is rendered, thick with impasto, those short, choppy strokes contrasting with the smoother, almost photographic quality of the car sinking into the waves. The artist clearly reveled in the physicality of his medium, in the push and pull of applying paint. This tension between realism and surrealism, between decay and rebirth, reminds me a little of some of the dreamscapes of Max Ernst. Ultimately, Roitburd invites us into a world where the boundaries are blurred, where meaning is not fixed but fluid, and where the act of seeing becomes an act of imagination.