Untitled 

This painting is by Tiberiy Szilvashi, who was born in Ukraine in 1947. He has used simple materials: canvas and oil paint. Szilvashi has applied these materials in a very particular way. Note the thick impasto of the paint, like plaster or stucco. The small daubs of blue and red stand out from the otherwise grey and white field, creating a sense of something barely visible beneath the surface. The artist is not trying to create a perfect illusion. Instead, the materiality of the paint itself is foregrounded. The amount of work involved in applying and layering the paint is considerable, yet it is all done with the aim of achieving a certain look of effortless simplicity. This combination of labor and lightness is typical of much abstract painting. It invites us to look past any representational content and focus instead on the qualities of the materials themselves. By doing so, Szilvashi challenges our assumptions about what painting is and can be.