Southern Land. Cave Town. 1908

Konstantin Bogaevsky’s ‘Southern Land. Cave Town.’ is a big painting of an imagined world with a pastel-ish palette. I can really feel him figuring it out as he goes. I get a strong sense of the artist here - Bogaevsky - and the kind of mental space he must have occupied to make this painting. What was he thinking? Was he trying to convey a feeling, or depict a place he had known and loved? I see him layering on all those tiny marks, one by one, to create the overall texture and form. Look how he models the cloudy sky with little touches of blue, lavender, and white. It reminds me a little of other symbolist painters or even Cezanne who had a similar additive method. It’s like the artist is in conversation across time with others interested in the same problems. This painting shows me that ambiguity and uncertainty are part of the artistic process, and this openness allows for multiple interpretations.