Composition 2004

Ivan Marchuk made this painting called ‘Composition’ with lots of thick, luscious reds, creams and blacks, all swirled together. You can almost feel the artist’s hand moving across the canvas, right? I imagine he was building up layers, scraping some away, adding more, and letting the painting sort of emerge through trial and error. What do you think he was thinking as he made this? I like how these bold strokes of red paint seem to reach out and grab your attention. They’re energetic, maybe even a little chaotic, but in a good way! This kind of gesture reminds me of de Kooning, but with a Ukrainian twist. It's like Marchuk is having a conversation with the history of painting, but also doing his own thing. There is so much going on, but somehow it all hangs together. Painting is an ongoing, back-and-forth exchange of ideas and it’s cool to see how artists inspire each other across time.