Peter Konchalovsky – an outstanding artist of the XX century, his favorite painting genre were still lifes. And the title of the best among them is rightfully written in 1913, the painting “Dry Colors.”
At an early stage of creativity Konchalovsky was fascinated by the ideas of Cubism and Fauvism, imitated the technique of writing leaders of these directions – Cezanne and Van Gogh. Thick, large strokes, saturated rich colors, characteristic transfer of forms and lines – all this was reflected in the still life under consideration.
What associations arise at the word “still life”? Fruktovo-vegetable abundance, exquisite table, bursting with the exciting taste of food? This is the traditional understanding of still life. Konchalovsky, however, portrayed something quite different.
The main part of the picture is occupied by the artist’s desk, filled with all that he might need in the process of creating a masterpiece of fine art. All kinds of bottles and cones, brushes in a jar, a jar with glue and a solvent, scrapers for correcting the written, the paints themselves. The outlines of the objects are shown vaguely, blurry, they seem to serve as a simple container for the color that the artist filled them-blue, red, green, brown, black. A colorful merry-go-round with a rainbow fountain hits the canvas, transforming the still life into a bright mosaic of color shades.
The wooden table, on the contrary, is drawn to the smallest detail: every cracks in the wood, each line of its drawing is written out with scrupulous clarity. The background of the picture is a deep blue curtain, the tone of the canvas bringing harmony to the riot of the colors shown in the foreground.
A real discovery in the creation of this still life was sticking on bottles and tubes with the paint of real labels. Thanks to this unusual reception, the artist managed to unite the world of art and material, and the picture itself – to revive and make everything depicted on it tangible and real.
Having painted what he himself knew and loved, Konchalovsky made it extraordinarily talented. “Dry colors” today are on a par with the greatest paintings of the world. You can see this still-life in the Tretyakov Gallery, where it has been carefully preserved for many years
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