Boris Kustodiev 2017

Andrey Allakhverdov’s oil on canvas, Boris Kustodiev, presents a scene alive with layered processes. It’s an artist's studio, maybe Allakhverdov's own, complete with model, tubes of paint, and a painting within a painting. The artist, palette in hand, becomes part of his own composition. The colours here are earthy but intensified. Look at how the cool blues and greens contrast with the warm flesh tones and the bright reds on the table. The texture is palpable, with visible brushstrokes that create a sense of immediacy. Notice the thick impasto of the paint on the palette itself. It's like the artist has captured a moment in time, but also the entire history of painting. I'm reminded of early self-portraits by artists like Courbet, or even later examples by someone like Philip Guston. It's that sense of the artist wrestling with their own image, their own process. There's a conversation happening here, a kind of back-and-forth between the painter, the subject, and the very act of painting itself. In the end it's a painting of art, of life, and of everything in between.