Matza for You 2017

Alexander Roitburd's painting presents us with a figure offering something forward, maybe it’s a gift or a sacrifice? I imagine Roitburd layering the paint, the brushstrokes thick, almost sculptural. You can feel him building up the surface, figuring it out as he goes. There’s a push and pull between intention and accident. Maybe the grey swirling background was his starting point. The paint almost mimics the feeling of being underwater. Then came the figure and that arm extended, holding out a piece of Matza. The color palette is muted, dominated by greys and browns, but then that fleshy pink head emerges, and the strange, tan, cracker-like square. That is the conceptual, visual, and literal offering. Like, here, this is for you. Painting is a conversation, right? Roitburd is in dialogue with painters of the past, grappling with form, representation, and the very act of putting paint on canvas, passing it on for you.