Bakhchisarai Street 1952

Yuriy Khymych’s ‘Bakhchisarai Street’ is a watercolour sketch that captures a fleeting moment in time. I imagine him, brush in hand, trying to capture the light as it dances across the buildings. There’s this interplay between solidity and transience that I find really interesting, you know? The buildings are rendered with these bold, almost blocky shapes, but then the washes of colour soften everything, like a memory fading at the edges. It’s like he’s saying, “This is here, but it’s also slipping away.” I keep coming back to that single figure in the distance. Are they walking towards us, or away? What’s their story? Khymych leaves it open, inviting us to fill in the blanks and maybe reflect on our own journeys. Painting is like that, a conversation across time, where we add our own layers of meaning to what’s already there.