Plain 2005

Arsen Savadov made this painting called, Plain, with some kind of oil paint, though its exact origin is unknown. The paint handling is pretty physical, you can see the clotted marks on the surface. There is this tension between abstraction and figuration. I mean, what’s going on here? It’s not just a landscape, there is a wrecked airplane. The sky’s a big swipe of almost black, and you can feel a real urgency and anxiety in that mark making. The muted colors really pull you in, and if you look closely at the mountains, you’ll see these buttery, almost appetizing strokes. Savadov reminds me a little of Anselm Kiefer, they both conjure up a sense of the past and memory in their paintings, using tactile and material processes. Art can be a conversation across time. So take a look and find your own story, your own meaning.