Red gold mask 2020

Sergey Piskunov painted "Red gold mask" in 1989 using what looks like oil on canvas. Look at how smoothly the colours are blended. It’s almost photographic, but not quite. You can see the artist’s hand in the way the colours shift so subtly around the eyes and mouth. The surface is smooth, but the gold leaf adds a whole other dimension. There’s a tension between the flat, almost airbrushed skin and the sharp, crumpled edges of the gold. See how the gold is broken into little pieces? Each shard catches the light differently, creating a shimmering effect, like a mosaic. It makes you think about value, what we consider precious or beautiful, and how easily it can be broken apart. This piece reminds me a little bit of Gustav Klimt, another artist who loved to use gold leaf. But where Klimt's gold feels decorative, Piskunov's feels more like a mask, something fragile and temporary. Art is a conversation, right?