Self-portrait (in yellow shirt) 1943

Pyotr Konchalovsky, with oil on canvas, gave us this self-portrait in, presumably, his studio. You can tell it’s a painting about painting, right? Look at how Konchalovsky handles the paint; he's not trying to trick you into thinking this is anything but a painting. The strokes are visible, and the colors, while representational, are heightened. That yellow shirt practically vibrates against the cooler tones of his jacket and the background. The materiality here is key. It’s about texture, color, and the act of applying paint to canvas. Take the artist's left hand, for instance, resting on his hip. It's not about perfect anatomy; it's about capturing the essence of a hand through dabs and dashes of color. The physicality of the medium, the way he builds up the surface with paint, gives the painting a real emotional punch. I can't help but think of Cezanne, who was similarly interested in depicting a subjective reality through structural brushstrokes. Ultimately, art’s not about fixed meanings, but rather about embracing ambiguity, and this painting certainly does that.