Noah and Hares 1991

Oleg Holosiy’s 'Noah and Hares' is, I would guess, an oil painting, though the furious brushwork looks as though it could have been made with anything that came to hand. There's a real sense of urgency in this piece. The palette is very limited, a sort of bloody, raw umber, off-white and black. The paint appears to have been applied thinly, almost stained into the canvas. The drawing is, well, kind of all over the place! There's a real sense of the artist wrestling with the figures as they emerge. This reminds me of late Guston, there is a similar interest in the emotive power of simple gestures and forms, and a willingness to let the making of the image be visible. Take that hare leaping in the top right, you can almost feel the artist's hand fling it into existence. It's as if Holosiy wants to catch something essential about the life force, it's messy, a bit awkward, and maybe even a little scary. Just like life!