Red Room 1989

Vasiliy Ryabchenko’s large square painting "Red Room" is a whole world conjured with oil on canvas. I can just imagine Ryabchenko laying down these strokes and gestures—how the scene emerged through trial, error, and intuition. It feels like a scene from mythology. In this rich and complex composition, figures are rendered in a kind of ecstatic frenzy, captured in dynamic poses against a sea of red. See the way he uses thick paint, almost sculptural in places? The way he layers whites and pinks to describe the figures—it's almost like they're illuminated from within, emerging from this primordial soup. I love the gesture of the figure, her arm raised to her head—so expressive! It reminds me of Picasso, maybe de Kooning too, these artists are in constant exchange and conversation over time. And so, the embodied expression embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed or definitive readings.