Goat 1935

Pavel Filonov made this painting called Goat with oil on canvas. It’s a field of tiny, hard-edged marks, like mosaic tiles, mostly reds, blues, pinks and whites. I can imagine Filonov standing close to the canvas, building up the image bit by bit, maybe lost in the sheer labor of it, finding a kind of ecstatic focus. It’s so easy to get caught up in the details that the goat kind of emerges, a ghost in the machine. I can imagine what it was like making this! Filonov must have been thinking: how can I make a painting that breaks things down and builds them up at the same time? It reminds me of other artists like Phillip Guston. They weren't afraid to pile things on, to make a mess in order to find something new. The texture is so important here, it is created by the accretion of marks. It’s like he’s saying, ‘Painting isn’t just about seeing; it’s about thinking, feeling, building.’ And that's the conversation between painters.