Still Life. Lilac, crystal vase and a basket. 1954

Curator: Here we have Pyotr Konchalovsky's "Still Life. Lilac, crystal vase and a basket.," painted in 1954. It's a rather striking oil on canvas, isn’t it? Editor: The immediate impression is one of abundance. The sheer volume of lilacs, practically bursting forth from their containers. There's an undeniable sense of lavish materiality at play. Curator: Indeed. Notice how Konchalovsky utilizes a post-impressionist technique with visible, almost frenetic brushstrokes to build texture and depth, particularly in rendering the complex structure of the lilacs themselves. The colour palette is dominated by violets, greens and whites, with minimal colour mixing, leaving the shades in simple combination to maximise their chroma. Editor: And let's not overlook the containers – a rustic woven basket juxtaposed with a refined crystal vase. The basket seems particularly relevant. Think of the labour involved in its creation, the gathering and preparation of the reeds. It's a link to traditional crafts that grounds the ostentatious display of flowers. Curator: Precisely! The crystal, however, speaks to a different sort of craft: The careful manipulation of glass, an engagement with ideas of social status, access to capital and domestic setting, as the two crafts of vase and basket frame our reading of the natural lilac sprigs themselves. The basket's earth tones versus the light refracting prism of the vase… the dialogue is clear. Editor: Beyond visual pleasures, it poses questions about value: what we deem worthy of display and admiration. It almost subverts high/low cultural ideas and speaks to how manual work brings forward the aesthetic properties in everyday objects as much as art. What this is 'of' takes as much precedent as how this has been portrayed. Curator: I agree. It compels the viewer to reconcile the delicate beauty of the lilacs with the grounded reality of their presentation. I find the lack of contextualizing background, however, quite striking, in order to foreground this still-life. Editor: Ultimately, Konchalovsky's work is about the transience of beauty and the often obscured labour and social setting needed to enable those experiences. Curator: I'd say that its success relies upon this dynamic play of structure and materials. Editor: I would echo this; one would hope that he meant for viewers to ruminate over social context, as well as beauty, while looking at it.