Old city in Kaunas 1923

Mstislav Dobuzhinsky made this artwork, Old city in Kaunas, using fine brushstrokes and a muted palette of blacks, whites and creams. It’s like he’s conjuring a memory, something between a dream and a photograph. I love how the architectural forms emerge from the ground up. I can almost feel the artist carefully placing each line, each shadow, building the scene layer by layer. I’m curious about what he was thinking as he created this piece. Maybe he wanted to capture the weight and feeling of the city, the quiet stillness of a moment frozen in time. The texture of the paint is so thin, almost like a wash, which gives the whole scene a ghostly feeling. Look at the delicate lines of the buildings—they convey such emotion, such precision. This piece speaks to me about the ongoing dialogue between artists across different eras. Dobuzhinsky is responding to a place, but also to the history of seeing and representing the world. For me, painting is about embracing ambiguity, about allowing multiple interpretations to coexist, about expressing feelings.