The Jug on the Table 1915

Lyubov Popova’s painting presents a jug on a table, or rather, an exploded view of a jug maybe made with oil on canvas. I can only imagine the amount of shifting, and correcting Popova must have done to arrive at this finished image. It's like she took apart a still life and reassembled it in her own way. Her gaze, a way of seeing, became the subject. I wonder if she thought about the way the light catches on those curved planes, almost like pieces of paper folded and stacked. There’s a real sense of play, but not without restraint. The colors are so muted, browns and greens, a touch of red. That checkered plane is so painterly it feels like a nod to Cubism. But, the way she flattens everything, while still managing to create depth, feels so uniquely her own. Artists are always talking to each other across time, sharing and borrowing ideas. Painting, for Popova, feels like a way of thinking, a kind of knowledge that's built up through feeling and doing, as well as seeing.