Landscape 1959

Valerii Lamakh made this landscape painting with oil paint, though when exactly remains a mystery. What I see here is a really cool dance between the gestural marks and the subject he’s depicting. Look at the way he’s laid down these thick, juicy strokes of color! It’s almost like the paint itself is alive, pushing and pulling to create the sense of trees, a building, maybe some bushes. The colors feel grounded, like earth tones, yet they vibrate with a certain energy. I find myself getting lost in the rhythm of these marks. Then there’s this spot near the bottom, a kind of scrumble of muted greens and blues. It’s so dense and textural. It feels like he’s really digging into the paint, wrestling with the surface to find the form. I’m reminded of Cezanne, how he built up these planes of color to create form, though Lamakh’s got his own distinct flavor. It’s this constant back-and-forth between abstraction and representation that makes it so compelling. It feels like an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas.