The languor of Oedipus 1989

Oleg Holosiy made The Languor of Oedipus using oil on canvas, though I am not certain exactly when. What strikes me is how the artist is so unafraid to leave their working visible; the marks feel raw and unfixed. I'm drawn to the paint, how it's been applied in thin washes, like a stain soaking into the canvas, with just enough body to define the figures. Notice how the brushstrokes follow the contours of their forms, but also how these marks fall apart into abstraction. The palette is muted, almost monochromatic, with blacks, whites, and grays dominating the surface, which adds to the sense of ghostly figures emerging from the gloom. Then you see those pops of pale pink and blue that add to the painting's uncanny atmosphere. I'm reminded of the symbolist painters like Odilon Redon or maybe even some of Goya's darker works. Like them, Holosiy embraces ambiguity and invites multiple interpretations, rather than offering any fixed meaning. This painting really sits with me.