Still Life with Flowers 1955

Pyotr Konchalovsky painted this still life with flowers using generous marks of oil paint. Look at how the paint is dabbed, swirled, and dragged across the surface. I can almost feel the artist shifting his position, trying to get the light just right. Imagine Konchalovsky studying these roses, his eyes darting from petal to petal, leaf to leaf. The red is intense, almost vibrating against the grays and greens. He has focused on the basics—a vase, some flowers, a simple background—but he's unlocked something deeper, something about the fleeting nature of beauty. The way he's built up the surface gives the painting a life of its own, a kind of raw energy. Painters have always looked to each other, borrowing and riffing off ideas across time. We are inspired by the materiality of paint, and the way that the simplest of gestures can communicate feeling. I hope Konchalovsky knew how much his paintings would mean to other artists.