Still Life. Flowers on the bench. 1954

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this painting of flowers on a bench, and you can really see how the paint has been dragged, dabbed, and layered to conjure the texture and forms of the blooms. It’s almost as if Konchalovsky is inviting you to witness the very act of painting itself, seeing the push and pull, the trial and error through which the work has come into being. I can imagine Konchalovsky standing before the canvas, wrestling with the desire to capture the vibrancy of the flowers. The paint isn’t too thick, but it has a skin-like quality, holding all of those colours together. When I look closely at the way he’s painted the leaves, for example, I see that the colours aren’t just descriptive; they're expressive. I'm reminded of the way other artists use colour, like Bonnard, who used colour to evoke feeling. It is almost like the colours have been embodied. Konchalovsky’s still life feels part of this grand conversation, this dance of influence and inspiration that makes art so alive. The painting embraces ambiguity, and multiple ways of seeing and feeling.