Still Life with a red tray 1910

Pyotr Konchalovsky made this still life painting with oil on canvas, we don't know exactly when. The painting is all about surfaces and the feeling of pushing paint around, it's like Konchalovsky is asking, what can paint do? And how can it conjure the objects of the world? Look at the way the objects are rendered with heavy outlines - the tray, the dishes. It's as if he's carving them into existence. Then there's that bold slab of blue on the side of the vase, almost violently placed, but it works! It's all about that red tray though isn't it? It dominates the entire composition. The tray seems to hover in space, untethered, a stage for the drama of everyday objects. Konchalovsky has links to both the Jack of Diamonds group, and Cezanne, so he's an interesting cross between Russian avant-garde and the European modernists. He understands that art is a conversation between different ways of seeing.