Mount Aragats at summer 1922

Martiros Sarian made this painting of Mount Aragats at summer, in 1922. It’s oil on canvas, and you can tell, because the colours are so saturated! I just love the way Sarian builds up the landscape in these planes of slightly different colour, especially those fields in the foreground. They are all yellow, but each one is mixed just a tiny bit differently. Look at the way that the lavender of the mountains in the distance echos in the shadows on the fields. The texture is incredible too, you can see the weave of the canvas coming through the thin paint. There's something so modern about the simplicity and the way the landscape is broken down into blocks of colour. It reminds me a bit of Milton Avery, someone else interested in simplifying shapes, playing with colour, and flattening space.