Don’t Stop

“Don’t Stop” shows Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger in a typically dynamic pose – shouting, vibrating, physically charged. The powerful depiction draws on iconic photographs from the late 1970s or early 1980s: Jagger with his mouth open, shirt unbuttoned, in the midst of performance. Kravchenko, however, transcends the source with her own contemporary grammar: the body is painted in electrifying shades of blue, while the background is flooded with luminous neon colors, spray elements, text fragments and expressive brushstrokes. The words “DON’T STOP” and “HONEY, AH DON’T STOP” are embedded directly – they come from the Rolling Stones song of the same name from 2002, an anthemic self-affirmation by the band. Kravchenko thus develops her layering of text and image further: the energetic singing is visualized, and the image itself becomes a carrier of sound. The painted surface is rhythmic, almost explosive – entirely in the spirit of Jagger’s legendary stage dynamism as the epitome of excessive performance in rock. Kravchenko’s approach is raw, impulsive, physical. She does not paint icons – she makes them explode. “Don’t Stop” is a discharge turned image, an act of visual performance that translates music, movement and text into a disruptive painterly system. Mick Jagger appears as the living energy center of a multi-layered contemporary culture.