Canonical Image 1979

Oleksandr Aksinin made *Canonical Image* with what looks like watercolor, in a year we don’t know. Imagine Aksinin bent over this piece, layering those reds like a sunset, maybe even using a ruler to get those lines so precise. The red is intense, almost angry, yet calm. Then, that strange landscape below… geometric and weird, like a dream you can’t quite shake off. I wonder what Aksinin was thinking, tucked away in his studio? Was he trying to build a world, or tear one apart? The colors are so flat, yet the image feels deep. The border looks as though the image is viewed through a window. The reclining figure adds a note of wry relaxation. I think of other image-makers like Philip Guston whose oddball visions also make us question what we know, and what we feel. Ultimately, painting is a way of seeing that changes the way we think, and Aksinin does that.