Piquant instructions for the bodybuilder 1989

Vasiliy Ryabchenko made this painting, Piquant instructions for the bodybuilder, with oil on canvas, and you can really see the hand of the artist in it, which is something I always appreciate. The colour palette is pastel and quite unusual, making it hard to pin down any sense of time or place. There’s this light, almost chalky, pink that defines the figures. The bodies are defined with raw dark strokes that somehow manage to be both brutal and very delicate. I see a kind of dance between control and accident in this painting. The surface is quite flat, but the texture is built up through layers of paint, giving it this tactile quality. The bodies themselves are quite hard to define but I love the way they seem to interlock and support each other. It reminds me a bit of some of Picabia’s more figurative works. Ultimately, this painting invites us to embrace the ambiguity inherent in art and life.