Turkey (Two odalisques) 1916

Zinaida Serebriakova made this painting of two odalisques, probably in oil, on a round canvas. Look at those blues and oranges, so striking. I can almost feel her presence in the studio, wrestling with the composition, balancing those colors, making it work! What I love about her mark-making is the rawness of it – you can see the artist's hand in every stroke. Take for instance the blue, linear drawing that makes up the foreground, it is so energetic and free. It doesn't feel overworked, right? It feels like a capturing of a moment, an idea. It’s like she's saying: here is my own embodied perspective on the beauty of repose and intimacy. Serebriakova is in dialogue with other artists, with Matisse for instance. I see connections with his odalisques, but she's doing her own thing, with her own voice, and her own lived experience. It’s this exchange of ideas, across time, that keeps art alive, right?