San - Angelo 1924

Pyotr Konchalovsky painted San-Angelo with oils on canvas, and it feels like he wasn’t afraid to let the paint do its thing. Look at how the brushstrokes build the scene; it’s not just about depicting a landscape, but about the act of painting itself. The way he layers blues and greens to create the sea, with those little white sails like scattered thoughts, makes you wonder about his process. Is it thick, is it thin, is it transparent or opaque? There’s this push and pull between representation and abstraction, with a particular charm, the trees in the foreground. The strokes are confident, almost haphazard, but they come together to suggest foliage dancing in the breeze. It reminds me of Cezanne, but with a Russian twist, maybe? It’s an ongoing conversation, this painting thing, and Konchalovsky had something to say.