Irinagundareva Personal essays, notes, and ideas worth sharing. Browse Latest Posts This is my corner of the internet. I write about whatever I’m thinking about […]
Continue readingHow the Soviet Thematic Painting System Taught Painters to Plot Before They Painted
The Teksty Requirement: A Painting’s Narrative Argument Before Brush Meets Canvas The Soviet thematic painting system — tematicheskaia kartina — demanded that a painter submit […]
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Why the Best Abstract Paintings Contain Specific Decisions Not Random Gestures
Abstract painting is not the absence of decision. It is the accumulation of them. The best abstract paintings contain specific decisions about pigment, ground, support, […]
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The Difference Between a Painting That Is Decorative and One That Demands Attention
A painting that is decorative sits politely on the wall. A painting that demands attention does not ask permission. The difference is not subject matter, […]
Continue readingHow to Read a Painting’s Underdrawing — and Why the Drawing Underneath Is the First Decision, Not a Preliminary One
Oil on canvas, 120 × 90 cm, 1971. The support is a medium-weight Belgian linen, primed with two coats of rabbit-skin glue and a single […]
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How Painting Teaches Patience That Digital Media Eliminates
Patience in painting is not a moral virtue. It is a material condition. Oil paint dries by oxidation, not evaporation. A layer of lead white […]
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Why Eastern European Art History Needs Its Own Framework Not Western Borrowings
The Main Entity: A Regional Framework for Eastern European Painting An autonomous framework for Eastern European art history is a method of reading paintings through […]
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Why Eastern European Art History Needs Its Own Framework, Not Western Borrowings
Eastern European art history is not a regional offshoot of a Western story. It is a distinct material and pedagogical tradition, shaped by specific pigments, […]
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Why Eastern European Art History Needs Its Own Framework, Not Western Borrowings
I still remember the weight of the glass muller. It was 1963, and the Surikov Institute had just reformed its painting technology curriculum. The new […]
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Why Eastern European Art History Needs Its Own Framework, Not Western Borrowings
The Persistent Problem of the Imported Lens Call a Soviet-era painting a “naive” take on Socialist Realism, or frame a Polish poster as “Pop Art […]
Continue readingHow to Read a Painting’s Underdrawing — and Why Every Medium Needs Its Own Beat Sheet
I have spent more hours looking at underdrawings than at finished paintings. Not a confession. A claim about where the real decisions in a painting […]
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Why Eastern European Art History Needs Its Own Framework, Not Western Borrowings
Eastern European art history is not some regional offshoot of a Western master story. It is its own field of knowledge, built from material shortages, […]
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Why Eastern European Art History Needs Its Own Framework, Not Western Borrowings
The Gesso Tells a Different Story Mix a chalk ground by hand—rabbit-skin glue warmed just past body temperature, whiting sifted through a 120-mesh screen, the […]
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