Suprematistinė Kompozicija 1923

Vytautas Kairiukstis made this Suprematist Composition with oil on canvas, but when? Who knows! It's a playful arrangement of simple geometric forms against a velvety black ground. The marks are clear, the colours pure; you can see the hand of the artist in every shape. I love the materiality of this piece. The way the thick paint sits on the canvas gives the shapes a real presence. Look at that big, red, hook-like shape in the lower left. It feels so solid, so grounded, yet it's floating in this dark void. It's like a memory, half-formed and just out of reach. Kairiukstis’s work reminds me a little of Malevich, with a dash of Miro thrown in. But like all great art, it stands alone, inviting us to lose ourselves in its ambiguous forms and to find our own meanings in the interplay of colour and shape.