Pumpkin 2011

Alexander Roitburd painted this pumpkin, we don’t know when, with what looks like confident strokes of oil paint. The orange flesh of the pumpkin is so luscious, you can almost smell that sweet, earthy scent of fall. It’s like Roitburd took a knife to his own imagination, sliced it open, and here it is! Two halves sitting before us. I wonder if he planned it all out, or if it emerged, a back and forth between eye and hand. Each stroke building on the last, a dance of trial and error, and intuition. Look at those seeds! Each dab of paint so carefully placed, but also somehow gestural. They look almost pearl-like. Painters are always in conversation. Cézanne comes to mind here, with his own approach to still life, focusing on shape, color, and form, like he’s trying to get at the essence of the thing, instead of just representing it. Each painter leaves clues, inviting us to see the world anew. It’s not about finding one right answer, but opening up to the possibilities.