Портрет чоловіка 1909

Mykhailo Boychuk's 'Portrait of a Man' in Lviv, Ukraine, is built up of earthy tones and decisive blue marks. You can sense the hand of the artist and the rhythm of the brush as Boychuk worked and reworked, adding and subtracting, smudging and correcting. I feel for Boychuk as he’s trying to capture this person's essence, using a kind of shorthand to get to it, putting down the quick strokes of blue for the suit jacket, then switching to red for the background, searching for the right mood. It feels immediate and alive. The paint is laid on thinly in washes, which gives the painting an open, airy quality. Notice how the raw surface of the paper peeks through in places. This contributes to the feeling that the work is not overly precious or labored over, but rather honest. Painters are always looking to the past, taking notes from each other across time. And we all hope that this conversation will continue long after we're gone. Painting is embodied expression; it doesn't tell you what to think. Instead, it opens up space to imagine something new.