By the sea. Family 1964

Dmitri Zhilinsky made this painting, 'By the Sea. Family', without stating when or with what! I'm drawn to how Zhilinsky builds up this scene with flat, almost graphic layers. Look at the woman in the red swimsuit – that single block of color anchors the whole composition. It's not about blending or shading; it's about creating a patchwork of shapes. The texture is fascinating. The paint application looks controlled, but when you get closer, you see little imperfections, tiny bumps and ridges, like Zhilinsky allowed the paint to be itself. There's this sense of careful planning mixed with a bit of letting go. It reminds me of Agnes Martin’s grids but with a folksy twist. Take the little boy, for example. The way his arms are outstretched, as if he is about to catch the fish, there is this sense of innocence in his open hands that makes you want to hold him tight and protect him from the world. Zhilinsky's work makes me think about those Russian icon painters, how they flattened space and used color symbolically. But he's also doing something very personal here, turning a simple family scene into a kind of modern-day icon. Art is about embracing ambiguity, right?