Remembrance (triptych) 1990

Oleg Holosiy made this triptych, called Remembrance, using paint, but the date is unknown. What strikes me is how the figures emerge from the hazy ground, with this real sense of a painting in process, being made. The process is not hidden! It’s not clear what kind of paint he used, but the colors have this washed-out quality, like faded memories. The figures are all in this muted grey, on a blue-grey background, and the bodies seem to be melting back into it. Look at the figure on the right. See how the outline of its leg seems to dissolve into the background, as if the artist quickly swiped at it with a cloth or a brush. Thinking about other painters, this reminds me of late Guston, but it also makes me think of the way Marlene Dumas treats the human form. There is a similar fragility to the material. A sense of something present, but also disappearing before our eyes. Art is never about fixed meanings, more like a conversation with the past.