Autumn Arlekin 2017

Here is the audio guide script for the artwork provided: Arsen Savadov made this landscape painting of an Arlekin in an autumn scene, with a melancholic palette of greens, browns, and muted blues. I can imagine the scene coming to life, painted alla prima, wet on wet, with the artist building up layers of transparent color. I sympathize with Arsen, thinking about him in his studio—what was it like to wrestle with this image? I see the rather thinly applied paint and how it allows earlier layers to peek through. Look at the small, floating diamond shapes throughout, each one slightly different, casting shadows as if on a sunny day. There’s this tension between representation and abstraction. A certain ambiguity emerges through the dripping paint, the odd placement of objects, and the figure's almost mournful pose. In this way, I see a kinship with other painters like Marlene Dumas, whose portraits evoke a similar emotional intensity through fluid, gestural marks. It all feels like an ongoing conversation between artists across time. Each inspiring the next. In the end, painting embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations rather than fixed meanings.