Undefeated 1973

Georgi Kovachev made Undefeated with what looks like oil paint, and with a colour palette that feels both muted and intense. The texture here is incredible; you can see how he’s really worked the surface, layering the paint to create this almost sculptural effect. The face emerges from this hazy blue oval, with a confident gaze. There's a drip of red paint coming down the centre of the face, from the forehead to the chin. It's like a wound, or a tear. Despite the rawness of the marks, there is a quiet intensity to the face; it’s as though Kovachev is searching for something beyond the surface, beyond the drips, a sense of the strength it takes to be undefeated. The way Kovachev builds the surface reminds me of Philip Guston, he also embraced the messiness of paint. I think in art, as in life, it’s about embracing the ambiguity, the multiple layers of meaning that make a piece resonate.