Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky

Acquired from the niece of the artist in the 1980s

Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery, Konchalovsky first solo exhibition, 1922
Paris, Chambre Syndicale de la Curiosité et des Beaux-Arts, Exposition Pierre Kontchalovsky, 4-19 March 1925, no. 11

 

P. Muratov, Zhivopis' Konchalovskogo, Moscow: Tvorchestvo, 1923, p.43, illustrated
Exhibition catalogue Exposition Pierre Kontchalovsky, Paris, 1925, listed under works for 1918 as no.11 Bouquet jaune
K.Frolova, Konchalovsky: Khudozhestvennoe nasledie, Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1964, p.101 listed
Exhibition catalogue Unknown Konchalovsky, Moscow: State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, 2002, p. 109, illustrated in a black and white photograph of the Moscow 1922 exhibition

 

Structural Condition The canvas is lined and is securely attached to a keyed wooden stretcher which has an inscription on the reverse of the central horizontal bar. This is ensuring an even and stable structural support. There is very fine pattern of craquelure visible throughout the background and within the artist's preparation layer. This appears stable and is not visually distracting. There area also some lines of craquelure within the white pigments of the flowers and the bowl to the right of the vase. These also appear stable. There are two faint stretcher bar lines corresponding to the central horizontal stretcher bar. Paint surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer. There is a small area of fragile and lifting paint and some associated minor loss above the flowers and towards the centre of the upper horizontal framing edge. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows one small retouching on the rim of the vase and several small spots and lines towards the centre of the lower horizontal framing edge. Summary The painting therefore appears to be in very good condition and would benefit from the localised consolidation of the area of lifting paint mentioned above, and the infilling and retouching of any associated loss.
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Petr Konchalovsky's still lifes from the 1910s are considered amongst his finest. As a founding member of the Jack of Diamonds group, he pioneered the still life genre as a laboratory for experimentation, where the artist could truly explore formal and technical abstraction. Konchalovsky was particularly sensitive to the fluctuating qualities of colours and paid special attention to colour harmonies, orchestrated by what he considered the most important ingredient of his work: the brushstroke.

'It is impossible to recreate a colour exactly, for colour changes depending on how it is lit. For this reason, one needs to create relationships between colours. If they are logical and contradict nature, than it is possible to [...] truthfully convey one's impressions' (the artist cited inV. Turchin, Petr Konchalovsky, 2008, Moscow: Belyi gorod, p.349).

This wonderfully minimalist work showcases Konchalovsky's approach to still life painting at its most radical. There is a bold starkness about the combination of yellows and greys, and the uneasy juxtaposition of cool yellow of the vase against the warm ochre of the table. The dark, sketchy outlines reinforce the solidity and weight of the objects, yet give the impression, as John Bowlt describes, that they 'pulsate out of the frame', a quality which characterises the artist's paintings of 1917-1918. Konchalovsky has pared down the composition to its key elements, and removed the usual frames of reference that a viewer would expect, such as perspective, foreshortening and, crucially, the surrounding space. The surface of the table seems to unfold before us, and the vase and bowl appear suspended between the front and background planes.