Landscape 1980

Ivan Marchuk made this landscape painting with what looks like infinite tiny brushstrokes or maybe even pen marks. The overall effect is like looking at the world through a screen or veil, which softens the edges and makes everything feel a bit dreamlike. Up close, you can see how the texture is built up, layer upon layer, creating a surface that vibrates with energy. The color palette is very restrained, mostly dark browns, grays, and blacks, but the way Marchuk uses these colors to create subtle shifts in tone and value is really amazing. The moon, a pale white disc, throws a spectral light across the scene. The reflection in the water is so realistic, but also so mysterious. It reminds me a little of Odilon Redon's nocturnes, that same sense of otherworldly beauty and quiet unease. It’s a landscape, but it’s also a feeling, a mood, a state of mind.