The Houses are Illuminated by the Moonlight 1983

Ivan Marchuk made "The Houses are Illuminated by the Moonlight" with what looks like infinite patience, and a tiny brush. It's all about the marks! How he makes them, and how they build into this scene that feels both familiar and totally alien. Looking closely, you can see how the texture of the paint is so important. It’s built up, layer upon layer, into a kind of thick web, especially in the sky. It's almost overwhelming. The colour palette is so tight – warm shades of brown and gold, that glow out of the darkness, but the real magic is how each tiny stroke adds up to a bigger picture, a world. The way the 'moonlight' spirals out from the centre is pretty wild, it makes me think of Van Gogh's starry night, only somehow even more intense. Both artists have a lot of feeling. In Marchuk's case, feeling seems to be the only way to make such a thing.