Objectless composition 1918

Alexander Rodchenko made this Objectless Composition, an oil on wood construction, sometime in the early twentieth century. The way he's built up the surface, it's not about hiding the process, right? You see the brushstrokes, the texture. And the colors, they're not trying to trick you into thinking they're anything other than what they are: layers of paint, one on top of the other. Like the sharp green square in the top half of the painting, which sits prominently in the middle of the work. You can see Rodchenko didn't labor too much over getting the edges clean, it's more about the gesture, the energy of the application. It reminds me a little of Malevich, but with a twist. Where Malevich was all about reducing form to its essence, Rodchenko seems more interested in the act of building, of creating a dynamic, almost unstable composition. It's like he's saying, "Here are the building blocks, now let's see what we can make." And that's what art is, isn't it? A constant conversation, a back-and-forth between ideas, and a willingness to embrace the unknown.