Autumn Landscape with Birches 1924

Konstantin Gorbatov made this painting, Autumn Landscape with Birches, with what looks like small, loaded brushes, pushing paint around with repetitive jabs. The palette is autumnal, naturally, with warm yellows and oranges, set off against a cool blue sky and a band of darker green trees. I wonder what it was like for Gorbatov to build up the surface like this, those tiny dabs of paint accumulating like memories. It's as if he's trying to capture the fleeting quality of light and color, the way a landscape shimmers and shifts before our eyes. Look at the way the light hits the tops of the birch trees, how the leaves glow with an almost internal radiance. It reminds me of the Impressionists, who were also obsessed with capturing the ephemeral effects of light and atmosphere. Artists are always in conversation with each other, riffing off each other's ideas, and pushing the boundaries of what painting can do. In this conversation, the subject is not fixed but always emerging.