Glacier in the Pamir 1931

Alexandre Jacovleff made this painting of a glacier in the Pamir mountains, and it feels like he was really in the thick of it, trying to capture the hugeness of the place with his brush. Looking closely, the paint isn't trying to hide itself; it's not super smooth or blended. You can see each stroke, especially in the way he builds up the whites and blues of the glacier. There's a real sense of the physical effort, like he's wrestling the mountain onto the canvas. Take a look at the lower part of the painting, where the earth tones meet the sky. See how the colors bleed into each other, like the air itself is tinged with the mountain's cold breath? It's kind of like how de Kooning used to smear colors together, not for realism, but to give you a feeling, you know? It's all about how art lets us experience the world in different ways.