Oil 1989

Curator: Here we have "Oil," an acrylic on canvas created in 1989 by Vudon Baklytsky. What's your immediate reaction? Editor: Oof, that's intense! I feel a weird sort of serenity mixed with…apocalypse? Is that a word? It's like the end of the world as painted by someone determined to stay optimistic. The colors, they fight each other but somehow make a sunrise at the same time. Curator: An interesting observation. Structurally, one notices immediately the crude impasto layering. The texture is so pronounced it challenges the conventional flatness of painting. Note how the graffiti art, neo expressionist marks disrupt any sense of idealized landscape. Editor: Totally. It’s like he was building the world from scratch, then immediately decided to mess it up, which…mood. See the little windows askew. Gives me the vibe of a child who has played too much with their construction toys. Are we demolishing or constructing here, what's the architect saying? Curator: Indeed. The geometric forms fight any clear visual interpretation, as we also contemplate abstraction, with each deliberate scrape of matter-painting application serving a purpose. The stark black tree against the colorful sky—a visual confrontation of life and decay. Editor: That tree is the heart of the whole shebang, isn’t it? Black as night, but tipped with those white flecks—like it’s fighting to stay alive, catching the last rays of sun…or the first hints of nuclear winter? I wonder what was on Baklytsky’s mind at the time, the late 80s. I can almost taste perestroika in this painting! Curator: Precisely, an engagement with late 20th-century disillusionment is strongly in play. Its semiotic echoes call to mind the transition in society at that time; its impact still has purchase today. Editor: Well, the genius lies there for me: it might depict a specific period and circumstance, but I feel as though it transcends to a kind of feeling of change itself—a permanent impermanence. The brush strokes on that hilltop might become waves, who knows? Maybe tomorrow it will be about saving a capsized vessel. It is pure magic. Curator: It is a conversation of material, color, and intent; the artist has, quite successfully, engaged a dialectic of feeling. Editor: Absolutely! If art doesn’t make you feel a little uneasy, what's the point? I will need a blank canvas after this…thanks for this interesting visit!