Peter the Great 1973

Jacob Kainen made this 'Peter the Great' using watercolour and crayon, but I can't tell you exactly when. The large red form at the top of the picture plane looks like it has been built up, layer by layer. There's a softness to the edges, which suggests the watercolour was applied wet-on-wet, like he was coaxing the form out of the paper. Little dots of gold animate the surface, contrasting with the expressive splashes of blue. This feels like painting as an open-ended process, where the artist is in dialogue with the materials, improvising and adapting as the work evolves. Kainen leaves traces of the crayon under-drawing visible. Little striations of grey create the impression of depth. The paint is thin and translucent, almost like a stain, which lets the texture of the paper come through. This reminds me of Philip Guston's later works, where simplified forms and bold colours collide in a playful, almost cartoonish way. It is like Kainen is having a conversation with art history, remixing and reinterpreting the language of abstraction.