Konstanta 2010

Dragan Ilić Di Vogo made 'Konstanta' with paint that looks like it was applied with confident, but maybe unsteady, hands. The palette is like a bruise – purples and reds mixing with sickly yellows. What strikes me is the texture. In parts it’s smooth, but in others, especially around the flowers, the paint is built up, thick and almost sculptural. The flowers at the base of the image have this quality. They feel like they’re pushing out, trying to escape the surface of the canvas. It’s as if they have their own little worlds. Then you see the paint running down the statue, like tears or rain, a gesture that contradicts the stillness of the scene. This tension reminds me of late Guston, that push-pull between figuration and abstraction, between the beautiful and the grotesque. It's like Di Vogo is saying that nothing is ever just one thing, that beauty always has a shadow, and that maybe that’s where the real stuff of painting lies.