Untitled 2004

This unnamed piece, made around 2000 by Viktor Pivovarov, has a real handmade quality. The colours, put down in soft, waxy marks, feel intuitive. It’s like watching someone think, and then lay down the next line. The drawing is on brown paper, and the colour creates the form. The artist uses the paper as a kind of middle tone, so the other colours lift off it. Look at the way the hand holds the small spheres. You can see a beautiful tension between the waxy coloured pencil and the paper that peeks through. The gray line that goes through the large form on the left makes me think of Philip Guston’s late work. Pivovarov wasn’t trying to make a slick product, he was trying to work through an idea. I find that focus on process really inspiring! It is an example of how artmaking can be a conversation across decades.