Moscow. Red Square 

Boris Kustodiev created this landscape painting of Moscow’s Red Square using oil paints. The composition is immediately striking, divided into a fore and background, with a cold palette of greens and blues in the foreground and warm reds and yellows in the background. This juxtaposition creates an immediate tension, drawing the eye between the two zones. The brushwork is gestural and open, with short, visible strokes that do not attempt to create a seamless, illusionistic surface. This emphasis on the materiality of paint is crucial; it acts as a signifier of the artist’s presence and emphasizes the constructed nature of the image. Notice how the structural forms of the buildings and the figures in the foreground are simplified, reduced to their essential shapes. Kustodiev doesn't try to give you an exact representation of the Red Square, but rather captures a feeling, an essence. This evokes a sense of emotional distance and contemplation and invites us to consider the symbolic weight of the scene rather than its literal appearance.