Dance of Salome 1978

Oleksandr Aksinin made this painting called Dance of Salome with what looks like gouache or tempera, the surface is matte, in a palette of red, black, and purple. I wonder what was on his mind when he painted it. The space in the painting seems to have been built from the inside out through layering, and a sense of building forms in space. There’s a definite sense of structure that I am sure Aksinin worked hard to achieve. He builds up the space from simple geometric forms that sit next to organic shapes like the apple and pear. He's playing with us, that's for sure! I really love Aksinin’s use of bold color—the red is so strong. Red isn't always an easy color to work with but he’s really making it sing, by layering it up with thin washes of purple and black, in order to make the red stand out even more. These artists are in an ongoing conversation with each other, passing ideas across time and space. I feel like he is in conversation with the cubists in particular. I can imagine him making this in his studio, a single lightbulb illuminating the forms.