Samurai 2011

Alexander Roitburd's "Samurai" is a painting that blends history and imagination with thick strokes and a vibrant palette. It's like Roitburd wasn't just painting a picture, he was building it. The texture is impossible to ignore here. Each brushstroke feels deliberate, almost architectural. The samurai's armor is a patchwork of rainbow colours, each stripe a ridge of paint that catches the light. It's not just a depiction of armor, but a record of the artist’s process. Look closely and you’ll notice the ground, the brushstrokes are frantic, almost scribbled, which create movement in the still scene. There's a playful tension between the subject matter and the way the artist painted it, a dialogue of sorts. This invites us to reconsider what we think we know about history, and how we expect art to represent it. Roitburd reminds me a little of Basquiat, in the way he uses raw, expressive brushwork to talk about identity and culture. But maybe that's just me. Either way, it’s a conversation worth having, don’t you think?