Jug with Flowers 1960

Alexander Semenovich Verdernikov made this piece, Jug with Flowers, with flat, graphic shapes and some kind of printmaking process. It’s interesting to imagine Verdernikov in his studio, maybe squinting at the tulips, deciding what to keep, what to leave out. Did he labor over this or was it dashed off with the confidence of a well-trained hand? I wonder if he was thinking about Matisse's still lifes? The way he simplifies form and flattens the picture plane, it's all kind of saying, hey, look, painting is an illusion, a game. Look at the red of those tulips against the green, what a combo! It gives the painting such a jolt of energy, but it's also balanced by these creamy neutrals. All these colors are not quite what they seem, which gives the painting a particular kind of tension. Artists are always looking at each other's work, riffing off of it, answering back. It’s one big, messy conversation across time. I love how painting can hold so much, all these possibilities, all this uncertainty.