Landscape 1959

Editor: Here we have Valerii Lamakh's "Landscape," painted in 1959 using oil paint. The earthy tones create a very grounded, almost weighty feeling. There's a lot of geometry and distinct sections. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The painting showcases a fascinating interplay between representational forms and abstract compositional elements. Notice the flattened perspective, how depth is suggested but not fully realized. Lamakh manipulates the traditional landscape format into a series of interlocking shapes and planes. What purpose does that serve for the composition? Editor: It creates a slightly disorienting effect, I think. The shapes don't quite resolve into a clear scene. It makes me consider the paint itself. Curator: Precisely. The materiality of the oil paint is also significant here. Consider the visible brushstrokes, the impasto in areas that suggest a certain gestural quality and the tension created. Where does Lamakh create harmony and dissonance within the composition itself through line and form? Editor: The diagonals of the trees meeting the horizontal lines of the fields create a dynamic, but there is still an unfinished mood here because nothing blends properly. It feels disrupted, not quite balanced. Curator: Disruptive how? Consider the way color creates contrasts, rather than depth; where are the greatest differences? The composition is pushing back against what a landscape should achieve, no? Editor: Yes! The red roof juxtaposed with the green foliage does it; that is jarring. I see how Lamakh isn’t interested in a realistic depiction; he is dismantling and reassembling something entirely new with color relationships. Curator: Indeed. Through this formal tension and structural decomposition, we can see this work in relation to explorations within modernism, but one distinctly attuned to the locale it interprets. Editor: That’s fascinating! Now I can better understand how the tension of the composition and texture contribute to its modern, almost deconstructed sensibility. Thanks so much.