Starting in the early 1990s, Chubarov's main task in painting became a transition to abstract painting at several levels, deprived of "dark passion". On the contrary, compared to the works of his Soviet period, his painting at this time was optimistic. Previous experience in painting anarchic corporality during the 1970s and 1980s allowed Chubarov to abandon self-revealing symbols. The artist refused close contact with the canvas, which is characteristic of abstract expressionism and which transforms into the fixation on a gesture, as in Pollock's works, or into speculative space of pure color, as in Rothko's paintings. Chubarov created paintings to be seen both closely and from a distance.