Fantasy 1925

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin painted this tempera, Fantasy, a painting of a rider on a red horse with hills in the background. I’m thinking about the painting, the kind of looking that’s a kind of feeling-with… I wonder if he mixed the tempera himself, grinding the pigment, mixing it with egg yolk, and water. I love that physical connection to the materials. And that red! It’s so primary, bold, and dreamlike against the blue and green landscape. It must have been a conscious decision to make the horse that colour. Did he want to make this a reality or to jolt us into seeing the world differently? It's a pretty big statement. The rider is interesting too, looking off to the side. What is he looking at? What is Petrov-Vodkin saying through this picture? Is this about movement, action, but also seeing?