Offiziersfriseur 1908

Mikhail Larionov made this oil on canvas painting called 'Offiziersfriseur', but we don't know exactly when. It looks like the paint has been applied quite thinly overall, giving the painting a slightly translucent quality. The gestures are economical, like a sketch, but the artist uses the paint to really bring out the geometry of the image. The composition is dominated by a dynamic tension between the figures of the barber and his military client. I like how the barber’s poised scissors mirror the sword held by the officer, drawing attention to the painting's playful ambiguity. Nothing is really set, we’re in the realm of playful suggestion. Look at the comb in the barber's hand, so simplified, just a few strokes of paint! Larionov's radical approach to form and perspective connects him with artists like Picasso and Matisse who were also changing the way we perceive and understand the world through art. Ultimately, it's a painting about making something out of seemingly nothing.