Stunning New Artist!

One of our most interesting Exhibitions to Date "Russian Landscapes"
December 9, 2011- January 19, 2012

 

Vladimir V. Filippov, "Fireweed has Blossomed"15¾'' x 23½'', (40 x 60 cm) 2009, Oil on Board $4,500

Russia has a long tradition of the great master painters giving apprenticeship to the best of the next generation thereby keeping the venerated Russian tradition of realism alive. That is the case between the Russian master painter Yuri Petrovich Kugach and his student, Vladimir Viktorovich Filippov. They both live and work in the legendary artistic community of Academic Dacha.

About half way between Moscow and St. Petersburg close to Tver, is the small village of "Akademichka" (or in English, "Academic Dacha"). It is about 10 kilometers off the main road, nestled in the Russian forest and graced by the shimmering Lake Mistino. The village has been the spiritual heart of Russian art since the village was founded in 1884. It has been the seasonal home of many of the great Russian artists over the last century and a half. The Academic Dacha initially served as a country refuge for impoverished or ailing artists from the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. Overtime, the area increasingly became a favorite with students and professors who came to paint landscapes in the open air. The setting so appealed to artists, that many spent the greater part of their lives there, purchasing small country homes (dachas) nearby. From Repin to Levitan to Kugach and countless other greats, this small village has been painted more and has inspired more great art than any other place in Russia.

Even today, in this idyllic setting, many great artists still call Academic Dacha home. The place has housed the legendary Yuri Petrovich Kugach (who still paints at age 91) since 1951. Over the years, Yuri Petrovich has been a generous mentor to several promising artists. Kugach, who was named one of 'Russia's top twenty artists of the twenty first century' recently introduced us to one of his students. Yuri Petrovich told us that VLADIMIR VIKTOROVICH FILIPPOV was his finest student ever. Kugach told us that Vladimir Viktorovich's soul was imbued with Russia's nature. He said that while you can teach technique, color and composition---an artist's ability to 'feel' the land is unteachable. Kugach said that the instinct of greatness is genetic and that VLADIMIR VIKTOROVICH FILIPPOV has that very rare natural talent.

The Master- Yuri Petrovich Kugach

Yuri P. Kugach in his studio

Yuri Kugach is one of the premier 20th century Russian Realist painters. He is known in Russia and around the world for his paintings of the Russian countryside and his amazing skill of depicting space, form and feeling in his paintings. He received the USSR's highest honors for his work, taught at the renowned Surikov Institute of Art in Moscow, and founded the Moscow River School.

Yuri Kugachs' talents were considered so valuable that, during World War Two, the Soviet government evacuated him and ten other artists to Uzbekistan to escape the Nazi onslaught.

In 1951 Yuri moved to the Tver region-renowned for its scenic countryside-to instruct at the House of Artists of Russia. Themes of nature and village life are a powerful and unifying principle in much Russian art. As avant-garde art began to rise in the estimation of critics, to help preserve the realist tradition.

  

The apprentice- Vladimir Viktorovich Filippov 

Vladimir V. Filippov

Vladimir V. Filippov was born in 1956 in Vyshniy Volochek. He spent his childhood in Novoye Kotchische Village, where such famous artists as brothers Sergei & Aleksei Tkachev lived. It was also not far from the Academic Dacha named after the great painter Ilya E. Repin. The Academic Dacha is a well-known Art Academy and artist community in Russia, and that creative atmosphere had a great influence on young Vladimir's creative future. Filippov spent long hours visiting artists in their studios, admiring great artists and their paintings. Since childhood, Vladimir's dream was to become an artist.

But at the beginning, Vladimir's way of life was altered from art. Having graduated from the Railway Collage, he enrolled in the Soviet Army. After his demobilization, he entered the Agricultural Academy. However, he never abandoned his dream to become an artist. Vladimir painted his first water-colored still life from nature in the studio of Nikolai A. Sysoev, who was an honored artist of the Soviet Union. He painted with great vigor under Sysoev's direction. Later on in 1970, he became acquainted with Peter I. Strakhov and Peter's wife Lia A. Ostrovaya, who were famous artists in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Peter Straknov made great contributions and progress in Vladimir's creative development. Since 1970, Vladimir Filippov has devoted his life, full time to painting. He has been an enduring participant of all the local and regional exhibitions since 1980.

Since 1990, Filippov has trained and worked under the Russian Realist masters Yuri P. Kugach (senior) and his son Mikhail Y. Kugach, who is now head of the Kugach Studio and a full member of the Russian Academy of Arts. Vladimir has also painted in the company of such wonderful artists as Grigory Chainikov and Andrei Zakharov. These artists and close friends have played an important role in Vladimir's development as an artist. Filippov is one of the few artists continuing the great tradition of Russian Realistic Art.

Vladimir Filippov is a member of the Union of Russian Artists since 2003. His paintings are exhibited in the Museums of Mogilev and Bobruisk (Republic of Byelorussia), in the Museum of Harbin (China), in many private art collections in Russia, Check Republic, Yugoslavia, Romania, Finland, Germany, China, and the USA.

Now For Some Fun!

See if you can pick which of the two paintings below is by Yuri P. Kugach and which one is by Vladimir V. Filippov? The answer is at the end of this section.

Painting #1 is by ?

Painting #2 is by ?

 

A Preview of Works From the Exhibition

Vladimir V. Filippov

Vladimir V. Filippov, "Shadows on Snow" 16½'' x 23½'', (42 x 60 cm) 2011, Oil on Board $4,300

Vladimir V. Filippov, "Puddle in the Road",19¾'' x 23½'', (50 x 60 cm) 2010, Oil on Canvas $4,500

Vladimir V. Filippov, "Last Years Grass", 15¼'' x 19½'', (39 x 49.50 cm) 2009, Oil on Board $3,800

Vladimir V. Filippov, " Bush of Peonies", 13¾'' x 19¾'', (35 x 50 cm) 2009, Oil on Canvas $3,200

Vladimir V. Filippov, " Road in the Field", 15¾'' x 19¾'', (40 x 50 cm) 2009, Oil on Canvas $4,200

Vladimir Filippov, "Decline", 10½'' x 19¾'', (27 x 50 cm) 1998, Oil on Canvas, $2,900

Vladimir Viktorovich "Spring in the Staroe Kotchishche Village" 11¾'' x 17¾'', (30 x 45.20 cm) 2009, Oil on Board $2,900

Vladimir V. Filippov, "Evening Snowdrops", 14¼'' x 19¼'', (36 x 49 cm) 2009, Oil on Board, $3,200

Now, the Answer to our Question?

PTG. #1, Vladimir V. Filippov, "Blossoming Time" 11¾'' x 15¾'', 2009, Oil on Board $2,900

  

PTG. #2-Yuri P. Kugach, "The Rain Has Passed" 10'' x 16", 1978, Oil on Board $42,000

(Socialist Realism, Great Soviet Paintings 1920 - 1970)

Through January 8th- Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome

   

Dmitri Zhilinsky, "Gymnasts of the U.S.S.R"., 1965

The history of the painting of Socialist Realism tells the story of an extraordinary movement in 20th century art. The Soviet state supported realist painting in a manner unequalled anywhere in the world, promoting its development by "recruiting" thousands of talented artists from all over its immense multi-ethnic empire. Socialist Realism extolled the social role of art and the superiority of content over form; it encouraged the rediscovery of the practice of traditional crafts and it dipped into both classical and modern European art, using it as a kind of reservoir of stylistic and iconographic motifs from which artists might draw inspiration. In 20th century history it represented the only complete alternative to the urgent drive to sweep away the past that was such a feature of the modernist movement. Socialist Realisms: Soviet Painting 1920-1970 is the most complete retrospective of this movement ever organized outside Russia.

Andrei Mylnikov, "In Peaceful Fields" 1950

The exhibition tracks the development of Socialist Realism painting from the dying throes of the Civil War to the start of the Brezhnev era, halting as the seventies begin because after that date the trends in official Soviet art started to branch off into different and inconsistent directions, which were to lead in the end to the definitive demise of the cultural domination exercised by Socialist Realism. The exhibition, arranged in chronological order, occupies all seven galleries in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni. Each gallery explores a multitude of issues, themes and formal approaches to art in each period. In highlighting the broad variety of solutions with which artists responded to the challenge of Socialist Realism, not only over time but also simultaneously within each individual time period, the exhibition sets out to overturn and thus to disprove the received wisdom that sees Socialist Realism as a monolithic art form built around a single artistic vocabulary.

Art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon's thrilling TV series for the BBC, "The Art Of Russia" is the story of a nation's destiny - revolution and human conflict on a scale unparalleled in any other European country's history of art. Emerging from the most conservative of cultures into the most radical, Russian art triumphed against the odds.

Andrew Graham-Dixon admits it's been an extraordinary journey for him. "Previous series like The Art Of Spain and The Art Of Italy were simple compared to this. There, history divides into accepted terms like Renaissance and Romanticism. "My journey through Russian history has been unexpected, challenging, surprising - and it's all the excitement of writing a history that really hasn't been set in stone like other nations' art histories. "It's also a story of high human cost - because so many artists had to take risks just to get their message across."

Episode one celebrates the great age of the icon, when Russia was at its most intense and inward looking. Travelling to the northern wastes, Andrew discovers the country's most moving icons, the little known folk "Lubock" art, antique Russia of the countryside, and Peter The Great's artistic revolution.

Episode two moves into the city and relives the glory days of the Russian high baroque and assesses the influence of "the Wanderers" - an extraordinary group of artists comparable to the Impressionists.

The final episode spans the tumultuous period of 20th century Russia, from the Revolution of 1917 to the present day with the tension between the new Russian investment in art and the strict doctrine of the Putin years.

Andrew visits the image of Jesus Christ painted by IIya Repin (1844-1930) inside the church of the Savior at the Abramtsevo estate.

Episode one, "Out of the Forest", starts in Kiev, the capital of modem Ukraine, where in the tenth century its ruler Prince Vladimir sought to unite the Kievan Rus' under the banner of Christianity. Artists were sent from Constantinople to decorate the cathedral of Santa Sofia in Byzantium style. For Prince Vladimir didn't just adopt a religion, he imported "an entire culture already at the peak of its sophistication", Graham- Dixon tells us. The "blaze of mosaic glory" caught in this film gives us some idea of the religious exhilaration felt by early converts.

Later we move to the Trinity cathedral of Sergiev Posad where Father Dolmans, deacon in the modem order of St Sergiev, speaks of the 15th- century heyday of Russian icon painting practiced by the monk and artist Andrei Rublev. "One has to live the same life as the saints that he depicts," Fr Dolmans says, "and the person experiencing Rublev's icons should do so in a heightened spiritual atmosphere, during an actual mass." Mingling with the congregation, Graham-Dixon is struck by the richness of the old gold, the direct Realism, as Stalin intended it simplicity of Rublev's storytelling and the tangible relationship the worshippers have with the sacred paintings. Visibly moved, he is barely able to put into words how powerfully visceral the experience has been.

The episode concludes with the westernization of Russian art under Peter the Great and Graham-Dixon leaves us in suspense as to the consequences of this sudden change of orientation. "When Russia opened its doors to Europe, it didn't just let in art and architecture. It let in a host of even more dangerous ideas, ideas that would lead to bloodshed and eventually revolution ... art went from being the servant of the state to the agent of its destruction."

Watch "The Art of Russia", Episode 1, "Out of the Forest"

The second episode, "Roads to Revolution", reminds us that although Peter the Great founded St Petersburg, it was his underestimated daughter Elizabeth with her Italian architect Rastrelli who determined what the city "would look like", applying at Peterhof a Baroque style even more grandiose than Versailles. Graham-Dixon visits Elizabeth's chapel during the final touches to its restoration after Nazi bombing, and talks to Nadia Emeyalanova, engaged in applying some of the 200 pounds in weight of gold leaf to the interior. Didn't she think it was "just a little bit over the top"? "No. I'm afraid not," she replies. For Graham-Dixon it's "the bling of Baroque ... fantastically excessive."

Catherine the Great continued the extravagance but by the 1840s, there was "a grand hunger" for change and for images reflecting the real Russia, "Russia in the here and now," Graham-Dixon tells us. The trickle of discontent grew under Repin, the most brilliant representative of the so-called Wanderers. Repin felt that the nation could only be saved by reconnecting with ancient traditions using paintings such as his poignant "Barge haulers on the Volga "to address the great issues of the day". With remarkable artists like Mikhail Vrubel struggling to achieve a modem idiom, Gontcharova, Kandinsky and finally Malevich, Russian art was pushed "to its outer limits", and flowered into "some kind of spiritual revolution", Graham-Dixon believes. With this, his narrative prepares us for the ensuing cauldron of experimentation and confusion.

Watch "The Art of Russia", Episode 2, "Roads to Revolution

The third episode, "Smashing the Mold",opens spectacularly with Graham-Dixon's visit to Lot 36, an industrial estate on the outskirts of Moscow. There, restorers are reassembling the sculpture made by aeronautical engineers for the Russian pavilion at the 1937 World Fair: two steel- plated workers, a man and woman, holding aloft the hammer and sickle. "A Soviet shout ofdefiance aimed at the capitalist west," as Graham- Dixon puts it.

One of the thrills of this series is the opportunity to explore little-known archives and to share the spontaneous buzz, which Graham-Dixon gets from handling precious originals in the bowels of the Mayakovsky Museum. Posters for bread, for communist biscuits with smiling or scowling faces, political photomontages. To communism, this was more worthwhile than say Cezanne "because", he believes, "it was art for everybody".

The result of Stalin's drive for modernity was to snuff out the innovation countenanced by Lenin and represented by artists such as Mayakovsky and Rodchenko. "Russia was depicted as a healthy .. .idyll" in the new state-approved style known as socialist realism. Graham-Dixon takes us down into the underground to see "the most powerful examples" of the new decoration. In Mayakovskaya Station, now one of the glories of the Moscow metro, Alexander Deneika designed a mosaic sequence of Soviet skies filled with planes. Among them a heroic parachutist, fresh-faced and exultant, is caught in dramatic foreshortening at the moment he pulls his ripcord. For Graham-Dixon, it's "a genuine masterpieces of art" produced under Stalin's tyranny.

More surprising perhaps we meet a 90-year old artist who stills believes communism could work. Nikolai Nikogosian, sculptor of heroic figures, has a studio full of models for unbuilt monuments. Graham-Dixon asks him if he'd ever had any qualms about working for the regime. "I very much like the ideology ... a country made up of workers and peasants with an intelligentsia. It's a great idea!. .. But they spoiled it themselves," he shouts, enraged. "And now what's the idea? Wealth, millions. They rob you .. .So has it got better now? No! It's got worse."

Communism may have gone, but the old structures remain in place. If an artist wants to be part of the system he has to toe the party line. One of the most successful is Zurab Tsereteli, president of the Russian Academy of Arts, whose work fills an entire wing of the academy. A life-size bronze statue of a glowing Putin is just one example of his work, a commission secured by his friend the mayor of Moscow. Its title: Healthy Spirit in Healthy Body. "It's as if the only thing this art believes is in power itself," Graham-Dixon comments.

Watch "The Art of Russia" Episode 3, "Smashing The Mold"

Finally, we come to the confusion and chaos of Russia today and how it is producing some of the world's strangest art - from heroic sculptures of Russian leader Vladimir Putin to the insides of a giant erotic apple; from the recreation of the Imperial royal family facing the firing squad to sculpture in liquid oil; from Russia's embrace of the commercial art market to a return to Socialist Realism. Russia seems to stand on another brink of revolution. 

 

 

               The State Tretykov Gallery Presents:

         The Tkachev Brothers- "About the Motherland"?

                                                          April 15 to July 17, 2011, Moscow

 

 

Alexei Petrovich and Sergei Petrovich Tkachev, Mothers, 1961

The State Tretyakov Gallery presents a major lifetime retrospective of over 160 canvases by Sergei Tkachev and Alexei Tkachev, from the collection of the State Tretykov Gallery, the artist's private collection, and from collectors around the world. 

The exhibition is dedicated to the 60th anniversary of their joint work and features their work as a continuation of the great tradition of the Russian Realist School of painting.  Interestingly, Sergei and Alexei Tkachev have worked together as one artist on the same canvases since 1950, creating some remarkable masterpieces. They have also worked independently, each of them being a major creative force with their own personalities and styles.  Sergei Tkachev uses sharp brushwork and tends toward large canvases while Alexei Tkachev is a more lyrical painter.  The exhibition consists of two blocks of works. The first section consists of their early works, painted individually and little known to the public.  The second part - the joint work of the masters - shows the great works that resulted when The Tkachev Brothers worked together and combing their separate artistic qualities, thereby producing the phenomenon of the Tkachev Brothers.

Their work is classic Soviet Impressionism and continues the traditions of the Russian realistic school. The Tkachev Brothers are considered by scholars to be the leading realist painters of the 1950s and 1960s and among the best Russian painters of the twentieth century.

The Tkachev Brothers works hang in numerous museums, including the the State Tretykov Gallery in Moscow, the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg and of course in the Tkachev Brothers Museum in Bryansk. Their paintings have been exhibited at the Smithsonian International Gallery in Washington, D.C, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. They both live and work in Moscow

Our American friends on a gallery arranged visit with the Tkachev Brothers at their Studio 2009.

"To see our dear friends the Tkachev Brothers finally receive an all en-compassing career retrospective exhibition in Russia's finest museum of Russian art, The Tretykov Gallery is breathtakingly exciting and so well deserved. Tom McCarthey and I have been dealing with Sergei and Alexei since the early 1990's. We have spent many hours at their feet, listening to their tales of life and art. We have been guests many times both in their small apartment in Moscow as well as their beautiful summer home at the Academic Dacha. These men and their work will be remembered as long as there are people on the planet who love art and beauty.

    

We invite you to visit the exhibition in Moscow. Failing that, please visit us at the gallery and see some of the works by the Tkachev Brothers we have in our collection.  Due to our long and warm relationship with the brothers, we have obtained a great collection of their work and currently have 20 of their paintings available". - Jim Dabakis, The Thomas Kearns McCarthey Gallery

To view available works by the Tkachev Brothers click below:

Tkachev Brothers (Alexei and Sergei),  Sergei P. Tkachev.,  Alexei P. Tkachev

Reports and Images from the Opening, April 15, 2011

 

The Tkachev Brothers: Two Brothers - One Passion 

Masters of Russian Impressionism: Sergei & Aleksei Tkachev

Alexei Petrovich Tkachev (b. 1925)

Sergie Petrovich Tkachev (b. 1922)

Both are graduates of the famed Surikov Institute where they studied under the outstanding artist S.V. Gerasimov.  Both are full members of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, the People's Artists of the USSR, laureates of the Repin State Prize and the State Prize of the USSR.  

    

Readers Note: In compiling biographies for Russian artists, we have sought to keep the exact translations, wherever possible. While this method sometimes produces awkward grammar, such a direct translation, we feel this better helps the reader understand the precise, unvarnished meaning intended

 

 

 

 

 

Sergei and Alexei Tkachev at the Press Opening

The Tkachev Brothers is a name that determined the development of Russian Art of the second half of the 20th century. They were born not far from the town of Bryansk, Chugunovka village. Sergei was born in 1922 and Alexei in 1925. That's where their parents Pyotr Afanaseivich Tkachev and Maria Vasilievna Lemesheva lived as well. Customs and manners of the old times were strictly kept. A bride and a groom were not supposed to see each other before the wedding day. That's exactly what happened to the future parents of the artists. By the end of the 1920s, there were eight children in the family, two of them died of diseases. The family, each member of which worked night and day, lived in the country. Their life was full of trouble and the children dreamt of breaking out of the awful poverty and illiteracy.

 

 

 

The Brothers at work, 1963

The outstanding character traits of the mother and the father seemed to have been mixed in the children. The 

father was a strong-willed, persistent man, possessing that unstoppable kind of energy which kept him busy all the time. As for the mother, being a poetic person by nature, she knew a great deal of Russian fairy-tales and retold them to her children. She also possessed a beautiful voice and was invited to sing on any holiday or wedding held in the village 

In the year 1931, father brought the family to the town of Bezhetsk where the new phase of the future painters' life started. Sergei and Alexei's coming to the Bezhetsk Pioneer (Boy Scout) Center was the beginning of their mutual love for the world of Real Art and they devoted their lives to it. There they met the teachers who recognized real talent in those two boys. In 1938, Sergei entered Vitebsk School of Arts and in 1939 Youth Pioneer Center got a letter, which contained a request to assign Alexei to Moscow Young Talents Secondary School. Alexei accepted the offer without hesitation. The studies were interrupted by the war. In autumn of 1941, Sergei went to war as a volunteer, he came back home in 1945. He was heavily wounded, awarded medals and orders.

Alexie and Sergie in their studio, 1975

In the meantime, the youngsters in the family, including Alexei, left for the city of Sverdlovsk to be evacuated, where the fifteen year old Alexei worked at the military factory. Alexei became a student of the V.I. Surikov Academy, Moscow State Institute of Art, headed by S.V. Gerasimov, who had a special feeling for talent and talented students. He could see that talent in the Tkachev's as well and did his best to help them while they studied at the Institute. G. Ryazhevsky, D. Mochalsky, V. Yakovlev, A. Gritsay and others became their teachers.

"You have to know very well what you paint" became their main slogan and their longing for knowledge was definitely stimulated by their summer practice held in the open. They traveled all over Russia. Their every return from practice was an important event at the Institute. Quality and number of their paintings was like those at the private exhibition. Alexei's graduation work "On Vacation" and Sergei's "For Peace" were given the highest marks and taken to the all-Union Exhibition. B. Johanson and A. Plastov highly praised their works. Since that time, Arkady Plastov closely followed their careers and along the way he treated the brothers was definitely fatherly.

 

 

Alexei and Sergei at the opening April 17, 2011

After graduation, their active life in the sphere of arts started, since that time they have worked together and that's how and when a new painter -- "The Tkachev Brothers" -- was born.  It is a mystery how these men actually paint, known by God only. They participated in all the Republic and all-Union exhibitions, arranged their own shows, and their works were acquired by the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum and other museums all over Russia.

In Bryansk, their home town, The Tkachev Brothers Museum was founded. Such paintings as "In the Field," "Laundry Women," "Kids," "To the Collective Farm," "In Between the Battles," "Mothers," "Wedding," "On the Native Land," "Saturday," "Russian Sauna" and many other became the classic of Russian art. The source of diversity and inexhaustibility of their ideas is life itself. They managed to become celebrated artists and every day life scenes painters not only in Russia, but other countries as well. Their paintings recieved the highest government awards and the State I.E. Repin Prize. The painters themselves got the rank "People's" and became Russian Art Academy members. Since 1974, they were heads of the Artistic Studio of the Academy of Art.

 

Alexei and Sergei speaking at the opening, April 17, 2011

     As for their private lives, they are totally different. Alexei has a family, a wife, a daughter and a granddaughter. Sergei is single, but he was involved in social work for quite a time. First he was elected an Administration Secretary of "Russian Artists Union" and later its Chairman (1976-1987). It was the heyday of Russian art, perfect conditions for painters; life and work were created. At that time, Sergei was a Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

     G. Korzhev said, "Tkachev Brothers are a bright point of Soviet Art and the main characteristic of their paintings is its folk character. Talking about them one can't simply say they have folk roots, they are the body and soul of the Russian Nation. They are closely connected to the people, their thoughts, hopes and dreams."

 

 

 

Sixty-six years ago, one of the strongest enemies the world has ever encountered was defeated under a joint effort by the Allies. Russia suffered the most during the war. The price paid by the Soviets is beyond comprehension. America lost 416,800 souls during the Second World War, the Soviets lost over thirty million--men, women and children. Hitler saw the Slavs as a subservient race, one that needed to be eliminated. For the Soviet and Russian people it was a war of either victory or complete elimination of both the "Motherland" as well as the Russian people. The Soviet people endured unimaginable suffering during the War. Few families were unscarred by the War.

It was the immense effort and sacrifice of the Soviet people which played the major role in destroying Nazi Germany. As a result, the Russian people today look at the Great Patriotic War in almost religious terms. The impossible victory over Germany stirs a sense of gratitude respect and nationalism throughout Russia.

Russia's artists of course were not spared the horrors of the 'Great Patriotic War'. Many served. Many died. But all Soviet artists who were alive during the war were profoundly affected by it. It was the preeminent event of their lives. All of their work was affected by the war. Even many years after the peace of 1945, many Russian artists were always close to their emotions whenever the topic turned to war. And, like many of the 'greatest generation' in the USA, the

Russian artist veterans are usually shy and humble about their efforts. But, these artists' lives and work seldom went long before the influence and experience of the war came to the forefront.

The Victory Day Parade and related celebrations held every May 9th are a solemn but victorious affair, one in which accomplishment is recognized above tragedy

         

A woman visits the grave of a Soviet Red Army soldier killed in WWII,  Moscow May 9, 2010

Tkachev Brothers "No-Name Height"

Tkachev Brothers, "Life Again"

B. Fedorov, "Native Land"

Mikhail Kugach, "Coming Back"

V. Licho, "Please Don't Cry Grandpa"

A. Shilov, "Forgotten"

March 4th to April 18th

This month we are excited to present a special exhibit by one of our exceptional and unique artists, Veniamin Alekseevich Safonov.  Of the hundreds of Russian artists we at the McCarthey Gallery have met and represented over the years, Veniamin Safanov is truly singular.  The artist's brand of impressionism is a touch more abstract than most of his colleagues of the period.  His thick paint, textured work and bright colors mark him as a favorite for both collectors and critics.

View all available works by V. Safonov

Veniamin Alekseevich Safonov, (1931 - 2004) 

Safonov was born in the Krasnaya Zarya Village (Orlovskaya Region, south of Moscow) in 1931.  It was, and still is, a small community of fewer than 2,000 residents.

In his childhood, the artist survived three years of German occupation.  One of the biggest battles of World War II (known in the Soviet Union as the "Great Patriotic War) was the Battle on the Orlovo-Kurskaya Arch, which took place near his village in 1943. This traumatic event made a deep impression on the young artist, and it remained with him for his entire life.  At that time, the German army was retreating to the West, burning everything in its path, including villages and farmland, and holding thousands of Russian people hostage.

When liberation finally came, the joy in the teenager's soul was mixed with the pain of loss, starvation, and ruin. During that difficult time, the young Veniamin took a great interest in drawing, and this influenced the remainder of his life.

Having graduated from the secondary school, he entered Art Collage in the Town of Orel. The young artist graduated from the Art College in 1951, at the age of 20. He then began his independent creative work.

Safonov moved to Podolsk (Moscow Region) in search of an art career.  In the beginning, he tried to paint genre scenes, portraits and landscapes. He had been working en plein air, observing changes in seaon and time of the day. The artist learned more and more to understand nature moreand to reproduce Nature's conditions on canvas.  In the course of time, the challenge of landscape works captured the young artist completely.

Within only a few years after his graduation from the Art College, Safanov's paintings were exhibited not only at All-Union Art Exhibition (the most prestigious artists' exhibition in the Soviet Union), but were also awarded with a Diploma. The artist was then sent to work in the Academician Arts Cottage. This was truly exceptional, as it was rare that the paintings of an artist who was not a member of the Union of Artists would be presented at an Exhibition of such high rank.  But when the paintings were chosen at first by Artists' Regional Branch (by a specially established body, the Exhibition Committee), Safonov was automatically accepted as a member of the Union of Artists. It was in this most extraordinary way that Veniamin Safonov became a member of the Union of Artists.  

The opportunity to visit the the Academician Cottage -  named after Ilya Repin - gave the artist a new creative impulse.   For the first time in his life, Safonov became acquainted with the creative works of famous and honored artists of the older generation, whose advice was very useful to him and advanced his knowledge  of art history as well as of artistic techniques.

In the course of time, Veniamin Safonov's painting acquired its unique and recognizable features.  Long, pasty strokes of a paint brush, bright color scale, contrast of light and shadow modeling are all characteristic of the artist's creations, and convey the fullness of variety, texture, light, and feelings connected with Russian Nature's beauty.

Important shows include:

- All Union Art Exhibition, Moscow, 1957, 1968, 1960.

- All Russia Art Exhibition 40th Anniversary of the Great October Revolution, Moscow 1957

- All Russia Art Exhibition - The Land and the People, Moscow, 1960, 198

- One-man shows in Moscow in 1961, 1981 and 1992.

- Active in Podolsk, Moscow region.  Specialized in landscapes.  A leading artists of the Moscow region.

- Member of the Union of Soviet Artists.

- Veniamin's paintings are found in the Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow) and other museums of the Russian Federation as well as in private collections.

- Veniamin died in 2004

 

 

 

 

December 15, 2010 to January 20, 2011

Chainikov is a keeper of the traditions of the Russian realistic painting school. But it would be incorrect and unfair to reduce the whole creative activity of Chainikov to some stable conceptions and several conclusive resumes. His creative activity can be compared with a large river with its slow flow absorbing many tiny brooks and other small rivers. Flowing together with the main channel of realistic principles, they are dissolved in the general stream, enriching it. This process cannot be stopped and it is endless. It is too early to make any conclusions. Chainikov is sure to create a lot of new and interesting masterpieces worth our attention.

Chainikov is a wonderful master of the landscape art. He reveals himself as a master of individual talent with his motives and his own style of painting the nature. He likes the motifs connected with forests, he is also attracted by edges of woods, meadows, surrounded by trees, bands of paths and forest roads, leading one's gaze away inside a painting

The great Russian poet A. Block said, "I devote all my life to the Russian theme and I do it knowingly and finally. The same may be said of the great young Russian artist Grigoriy Chainikov. I am grateful to Chainikov who has kept faithful to himself, to his native land and to the art of his tradition. In a world full of the temptation of 'modern' art, he has been a 'keeper of the traditions' of the Russian realistic school of painting. He has opened to us, his Russia. This is not the Russia of the capital or of holidays, but the real one with its endless open spaces, villages and good-hearted people. Their life is not easy, they have sorrows, grief and joys, but more often than not, they have a lot of hardship and misery. Still, they are not broken and they live the Russian way, with open hearts and souls."

 

Grigory L. Chainikov 
Century Old Fir-Tree
 30¼" x 36¼" (77 x 92 cm)
1986, Oil on Canvas

Chainikov, Grigoriy Leontievich- (1960 – 2008)

In recent years Chainikov has emerged as Russian Realism's newest and brightest find. His recent death at the age of 47 is a great loss to Russia, and to the international art world.

Chainikov embraced Russian Realism and remained ever true to its spirit. As he explained, "My themes arise on their own, through insight and not from engaging in subtleties.." His landscapes are often filled with human forms. He painted the everyday: peasants, the field workers, the old, and the young. He painted only what matters, only what is real. In the pater years of his life, one could most often find the non-assuming Chainikov at The Academic Dacha, painting Russia's humblest fold, with the compassion and understanding of an artist who knows only how to paint the truth and the realism of life.

When contemplating the paintings created by Grigoriy Leontievich Chainikov, one is struck by the purity and simplicity of the artist's subject matter. Chainikov's work radiates kindness, sincerity and serenity. The art mirrors the painter's personality: engaging, humble and genuine. An artist's view of the world can dismiss abstract reasoning and meaningless rhetoric. Trained in the traditions of Russian Realism, Chainikov sees man and nature as the wellspring of his inspiration, as he uses intricate combinations of color and shade to frame a moment in time. For Chainikov, fantasy and abstract are tricks of the "evil one.

Chainikov's origin can be traced to Udmurtia, Russia, where his ancestors had resided for generations. The artist was born on November 28, 1960 in the remote village of Grakhovo. Chainikov, a self-taught sketcher, often spent the tedious summer hours he worked as a shepherd, drawing images of the countryside. Before long this hobby became an obsession and Chainikov entered The Department of Graphic Arts School, housed in a classical, ancient mansion. The formal majesty of artistic academia inspired Chainikov. Here Chainikov studied the plaster head of Apollo, amazed by the artist's ability to convey image in dimension. This became the defining element in Chainikov's style. His teachers soon recognized the student's extraordinary raw talent.

Chainikov was a prodigious worker.

Initially Chainikov painted only with watercolors, but he was soon referred to Moscow to study under Victor G. Tsyplakov, the renowned "people's artist of the USSR", where he quickly turned his skills to painting strictly with oils. Chainikov was ultimately admitted to the Surikov Institute of Arts, the most prestigious art institute of Russia. Much of Chainikov's development came under the watchful eye of Tsyplakov who taught his student to paint directly on the canvas, without sketches. For instance, the teacher had his student begin a portrait by painting only the eyes, then developing the painting around the origin. Tsyplakov and Chainikov became fast friends, as well as teacher/student.

Upon completing his training at The Instutitue, Chainikov went to the Russian Academy of Arts, painting alongside two of Russia's most honored artists, brothers, Alexi and Sergei Tkachev. Gaining admission to the Artist's "Akademicheskaya Dacha" enabled Tkachevs the opportunity to study the younger Chainikov's works. The brothers were teachers and mentors to Chainikov, and were instrumental to the success of their friend and student over the years.

Critical Review of Grigory Leontievich Chainikov:

Grigoriy Leontievich Chainikov, an artist from Moscow, is a vivid representative of the Russian realistic school of painting. As it seems his peasant's roots determined greatly a direction of his creative activity. And the "creative credo" of his teachers and tutor-guides played in this respect a considerable role. At the beginning it was V.G.Tsyplakov, a well-known artist and a Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Arts, later on there were the Academician Artists, brothers Aleksey Petrovich and Sergey Petrovich Tkachevs. Chainikov's paintings always attract attention of the audience at the artistic exhibitions. Looking at them, one sinks into the world of beauty, which is expressed by the artist using traditional esthetic conceptions of Russian people.

Chainikov is an artist of a chamber and lyric mentality. He is strongly attracted by everything that is customarily called eternal and imperishable. One cannot find in his creative activity any thematic paintings with complicated compositional and figurative structures, dominating generalization brought to a universal and global understanding of these or others depicted phenomena. However, it does not witness against any limitation in the range of Chainikov's creative ability. The breadth of his interests is expressed, first of all, in his addressing to different genres -- a landscape, a portrait, everyday sketches, and interiors. And Chainikov would not be a typical Russian artist and a follower of the realistic school of painting if there were no intimacy and poesy in his landscapes, if he did not address himself to people's subject-matter in his everyday sketches. He tries to understand the person's inner world in his portraits. Chainikov is a profoundly Russian artist both in the spirit of his art and in ways of its expression. Without exception, all the paintings of the artist, both large and small, are a kind of a natural outline of the artist's life. His own existence in the world is inseparable from his

Grigory L. Chainikov, “The Boy with a Plough”, 52" x 40½" (132 x 103 cm), 2002,Oil on Canvas 

 artistic perception of human's objective reality. In other words, the art and the life in Chainikov's creative activity are merged together. Living in Moscow, he spends most time of the year in Tver Region, in the House of Creative Activity. "The Academician Summer Cottage" is where he finds materials for his paintings.

Chainikov is a wonderful master of the landscape art. He reveals himself as a master of individual talent with his motives and his own style of painting the nature. He likes the motifs connected with forests, he is also attracted by edges of woods, meadows, surrounded by trees, bands of paths and forest roads, leading one's gaze away inside a painting – "The Violets Have Finished Blossoming" (1992), "The Fallen Leaves" (1996), "The First Flowers" (2001).

The village nature takes a large part in his landscape motifs. He depicts village peasants' log huts, bath houses vividly placed on forest's background and a river running away. His landscapes are full of air, freshness and light. They are warmed up by the artist's live feelings. There is always some mood in them, calm joyful, lyric and epic, sometimes romantic, but one can never see in his pictures a nature of stormy and violent manifestations of feelings and struggle of passions. Chainikov included into his images of nature so much personal overtones that his landscapes are turned into lyrical pieces of poetry.

Chainikov introduces rather actively a person into his pictures; The bulk of the artist's landscapes are built according to the principle of a diagonal composition and it gives a definite dynamics to a painting.  Being a characteristic feature of a Russian landscape, the panoramic composition is also peculiar to many paintings by the artist. The space spread in breadth or going inside turns those fragments of the nature into a resemblance of unbounded expanses.

Speaking about Chainikov's mastery as a landscape painter, his excellent command of a brush as well as his artistic softness, quiet coloring, steadiness and a richness of tonal and color masses should be pointed out.

The artistic conception of Chainikov's material world does not become exhausted with his pictures of nature. A person's image is on the foreground in his creative activity. A portrait as well as a landscape is the main sphere of Chainikov's art. The circle of people portrayed by the artist is rather large – starting from artist and scientists and finishing with village working people. The portraits attract one's attention by the artist's well-disposed attitude towards the depicted persons. He is able to reproduce the mood and a definite emotional state. Chainikov's portraits are, as a rule, intimate and chamber. There is no philosophical depth in them, but there is an assertion of the person's beauty, his appearance and his talent.

Female portraits take a special place in Chainikov's art, they are built in nature and exclude any idealization of the portrayed persons. The artist depicts mainly beautiful women. They are cheerful and merry, sometimes even self-confident. But occasionally one can meet a thoughtful face and a sad look. The artist does not seek in them a similarity, but he is eager to pass an inner essence of his models. And although they are somewhat of the same type according to their interpretation, they are different in their characters and individual originality. Chainikov depicts women's portraits mainly up to their chest on a neutral background. As for men's portraits, they are depicted as a rule in their full size, quietly sitting and the spectator's attention is concentrated on their faces and hands.Many portraits of Chainikov are merged with an everyday genre and still life.  They can be called portrait-pictures. Such a merging favors a  creation of a unified and harmonic artistic image.

 Grigory L. Chainikov, "Returning Home", 26½" x 51" (67 x 129,5 cm), 2004, Oil on Canvas

Chainikov has also revealed himself in the genre art in which the first and even the only place take a Russian village. People's theme passes through all the Russian painting and it is inherent to modern artists. The theme of a village can be also clearly seen in Chainikov's creative activity.

Chainikov is meditative in the genre art. While depicting the village life, he does not estimate it. He neither makes any harsh judgments, nor underlines it, but he shows the life and does it with sympathy, kindness and love. Many of his genre scenes are not deprived of some poetry. Such a meditative and positively poetic understanding of life in Russian art goes back to the followers of Venetianov.

The figures in Chainikov's paintings are static; they sit, stand, but the people are never shown in movement. Their gestures are scanty and all the characters are presented in space. But the space does not dominate in paintings and the accent is given to a figurative part of a composition. Chainikov's models are understood not as "typical characters" or "everlasting heroes" but as concrete and modern persons. And it does not seem to be appropriate and logical in this case to write about the formal and stylish categories used by Chainikov, because the peculiarities of compositional constructions, interpretation of the volume, as well as color and light solutions, pictorial texture and the technique of paint-brush strokes are varied and solve every time differently. Chainikov works also in the interior genre, he paints still life. He has his series of self-portraits and children's portraits. 

Soviet Art from the Collection of the Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

August 5 - November 1, 2010

Benois Wing

"Hymn to Labor" is one of the most important exhibitions of Socialist Realism and Working Class Impressionism ever held. The exhibition presents More than 200 works of art, most exhibited for the first time, from The Russian Museum in St.Petersburg. The works include painting, sculpture, graphic and decorative arts on the workers and labor feats of the Soviet people. We hope you can make it to see the exhibition. However, if St. Petersburg is a little far for you to travel and you don't care for the jet lag, we suggest an easy and pleasant visit to Park City, Utah. The Thomas Kearns McCarthey Gallery has one of America's best collections of Socialist Realism and Working Class Impressionism by many of the same artists that are included in the Russian Museum exhibition.

Visit the Russian Museum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

J. Krestovsky, "The Fitters", 1975, Oil on Canvas

Samokhvalov, "Woman with the File", 1929, Tempura on Canvas

Exhibition continues through September 30th, 2010                                                           

 

Marty Ricks
"Girl in Sunlight"
21" x 14" (28 x 35.5 cm)
2010, Oil on canvas, SOLD

The Thomas Kearns McCarthey Gallery is pleased to invite you to the opening of the show "Russian Roots" with renowned Utah artist Marty Ricks.  Marty has recently returned from a month long adventure to Russia and the Ukraine to experience and connect with one of his main artistic influences, Russia and Russian Impressionism.  Marty's fascination with Russia and the Ukraine go back many years when as a youngster in Idaho, where he met and spent time with Russian Impressionist master Sergei Bongart.  On his recent trip, Marty feels that he genuinely connected with his artistic roots as well as the warmth and friendliness of the Russian people.  Marty has returned filled with Russian inspiration and a renewed artistic expression.  Please join us as Marty debuts his new Russian inspired collection of paintings.

"Russian Roots"

"Upon returning from a six week trip to Ukraine, Russia and the Czech Republic, I have been contemplating how remarkable life can be. I wonder what I would be doing had Sergie Bongart not chosen to leave his native country and journey to America. Sergei's teaching affected many artists, even those completely unaware of his influence".  -Marty Ricks

Marty Ricks (American, 1961)

Marty Ricks, who was born in Rexburg, Idaho in 1961, was destined to become a painter.  The son of artist Don Ricks, all three of his brothers made a living at one time as artists.  Despite the calling he felt, he resisted his urge to paint, and at the young age of 17, Ricks began a career as a picture frame maker, creating frames for renowned artists throughout the country.
Ricks eventually opened a store in New York City at 3rd and 57th Street.  His business prospered, but was almost completely destroyed by the September 11th terrorist attacks.  After this infamous day, Ricks re-evaluated his life and resolved to make some changes, most significantly to become a painter.  He sites his brother Douglas Ricks as his primary tutor; he has also been influenced by the work of Russell Chatham, George Inness, and Sergei Bongart, who was his father's teacher and art workshop partner.
Aside from these great artists, Ricks feels that nature herself has been the most influential on his work.  "My work is an attempt to communicate my deep love of the outdoors and the spiritual foundation of the natural world."  Ricks is an avid hunter and fly-fisher; his favorite locations often become subjects of his work.
 

   July 1st - August 30th, 2010

Sometimes in art, the small, unrehearsed, almost impulsive pieces are the most stunning and the closest response to the innate genius of the artist. Without thought, planning, or reliance on onels training and education, a small jewel can express the rawest emotion of the artist. It can be the simple and direct brain-to-hand connection that reveals the truest response of the artist. That is what a "small jewel" can often bring that a large, studied, and planned piece cannot. There is no filter, just a quick sketch or a plein air moment or an accidental stumbling by the artist into a stirring scene or image that is captured in a moment.

This is what we are presenting in our "Small Jewels" exhibition. An unfettered look into the soul of the artist. With small works by some of the greatest artists of the Russian Impressionistic period- Yuri Kugach, Alexei Gritsai, Vladimir Stozharov, Igor Popov, Boris Lavrenko, Alexksei Mozhayev and others- we feel we have put together an incomparable view of this magic few moments of genius.

We are thrilled to be presenting the McCarthey Gallery's first show of "Small Jewels" and we hope you will stop by the Gallery to enjoy firsthand these very special gems.

 

 

 

May 1st - June 30th, 2010

The gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of Russian academic drawings.

Drawings have a very special place in Russian Impressionist art. Traditionally, first year students at Russian and Soviet art schools were permitted to do nothing but draw. Their six years’ intensive academic training was built on a foundation of great drawing. An observer at the small (but very impressive) museum at the Ilya Repin St. Petersburg State Academic Institute Of Fine Arts, Sculpture And Architecture (the “Repin Institute”) can see academic drawings (with the grades attached) from student works starting from 1769.

The result of this emphasis on mastering drawing as the basis of great art can be seen in the museum exhibitions of student drawings from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The exhibit includes student works of some of Russia’s greatest artists, including Ivan Shishkin, Arkady Plastov, Vasily Nechitailo, Nikolai Timkov, Eugenia Antipova, Alexander Sokolov, Nikolai Baskakov, Oleg Lomakin, Boris Ioganson, and many others.

Russians have maintained this great drawing discipline even today. Even contemporary students at Russia's prestigious academies must first master drawing for at least a year before they are allowed to move on to other forms. It is this strength in drawing technique that makes possible the uncompromising realism of Russian art.

We are thrilled to be presenting the first show of Russian academic drawings in Utah. It is a wonderful collection, and we hope you will stop by the Gallery to enjoy some of the master works of Russian drawings.

The exhibition continues through June 30th.

To find out more about Russian Academic Drawing, and to see a slide show of the exhibition, please click- RUSSIAN ACADEMIC DRAWINGS.

Art MarketInsight [Apr 2010]

Between 2005 and 2008 the number of Russian artists generating 7-figure USD sums at auctions dramatically increased as wealthy collectors exercised a new appetite for a body of work that was relatively cheap compared with the stratospheric prices being fetched by European art. In price terms, the primary beneficiary of this new focus on Russian art during the last decade was 19th century Russian art. After an increase of 473% between 1998 and 2008, prices contracted 37% with the crisis (January 2008 - January 2010). For their Russian Art sales in April 2010, rather than betting on more 7-figure results, Christie's and Sotheby’s have decided to offer a vast range of works by well-known artists with low estimates not exceeding $400,000.

Between 21 and 23 April 2010, the two market leaders will be offering 600 lots of Russian art in New York. Aside from the icons and objects offered as part of these thematic sales, a number of paintings from the end-19th / beginning-20th century will be hotly contested.The proceedings will commence at Sotheby’s on 21 April with a massive 359 lots including a number of paintings by the avant-garde Ukrainian artist, Pavel TCHELITCHEW, from the collection of the American actress Ruth Ford (one of which is a portrait of the actress-collector herself, estimated at $150,000 - $200,000) and 86 works by the same artist from the Yakov Pereman collection. The latter collection, estimated at $1.5 - $2m, is presented in a separate catalogue.Apart from this impressive collection of paintings with distinctly cubist and fauvist accents, the star signatures of the sale include Nataliia Sergeevna GONCHAROVA, Stanislaw ZUKOWSKI, Nicolas KALMAKOFF, Vasilij Ivanovic SUCHAEV, Anna Aleksandrovna LEPORSKAJA, Vladimir Davidovic BARANOV-ROSSINÉ, Alexander Evgenevich IACOVLEFF and Yuri Ivanovich PIMENOV for whom Sotheby’s is expecting a new auction record. If it fetches within its estimated range of $250,000 - $350,000, Pimenov's Morning Windows would outclass Rainy Day which sold for the equivalent of $213,300 on 15 March 2007 in Stockholm.Very much in vogue in recent years, Natalia Goncharova's Still life with fish and Flowers should reach its low estimate of $300,000. In fact, on the Russian art podium, Goncharova currently holds third place behind Wassily KANDINSKY (Fugue, $19m, 17/05/1990, Sotheby’s) and Marc CHAGALL (Anniversaire, $13.5m, 17/05/1990, Sotheby's). Unlike her two compatriots, she didn't need the speculative bubble of 1990 to reach her 7-figure record which dates from June 2008 when her highly colourful painting - Les fleurs - fetched £4.9m ($9.6m) at Christie’s in London. Indeed, Natalia Goncharova's price index has been extremely effervescent since 2006, year in which her total revenue exceeded her combined total for the previous seven years! In four years her prices have risen 84% and 2010 has already started in the same vein with the sale on 2 February 2010 of an Espagnole with Cubist-futurist accents that fetched the equivalent of $9m at Christie’s Impressionist & Modern Art sale in London).Among the five works by Alexandre Iacovleff, the oil painting Portrait of a Man is announced at $100,000 and $150,000. Alexandre Iacovleff's price index has posted one of the best progressions of the decade. Even after the market correction, his index shows a 1062% increase since 1990! The acceleration was particularly strong in 2005 when a painting representing a bird's eye view of a Nigerian village (View of Zinder, Niger) fetched five times its estimate at £550,000 (30/11/2005 at Christie’s). And then 5 times the estimate again in June 2007 when his portrait of Vasilii Shukhaev generated a new record of $3.5m (>$4.9m) at Christie’s in London. Certain works will clearly test the market's recovery such as Vichy, a painting by Konstantin A. KOROVIN estimated at between $300,000 and $500,000. The work suffered the full impact of the price deflation during the autumn of 2008 when it fetched just half its low estimate at $250,000 (5 November 2008, Sotheby’s). The sale will also test the market resistance of Vladimir Davidovich Baranov-Rossiné whose last six works offered at auctions in 2009 were all bought in. His Cubist nude entitled La Femme nue debout is estimated at $100,000 - $150,000.

At Christie’s, the star lot is signed Konstantin Egorovic MAKOVSKIJ. One of the most sought-after Russian painters from the 19th century, the artist's index shot up 853% in just one decade (1999-2009) before dropping 72% as the art market deflated and Russian fortunes shrank. On 23 April, Christie’s will be offering a portrait of a young woman, In from a stroll, estimated at $400,000 – $600,000. This price range corresponds to the prices this type of subject would have fetched in 2006. His last result above $200,000 goes back to November 2008 when a portrait The young Boyarina fetched £145,000, (€216,485), at Sotheby’s in London (24/11/2008). Apart from the aesthetic qualities of the elegant women represented in In from a stroll, the painting's origins also add substantial value to the work. Originating from a private collection, it has not changed hands since 1955.       Copyright © Artprice.com

 

The gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by one of Russia’s young contemporary painters Victor Butko.  Carrying on the tradition of  Russian Impressionism,  the exhibition will run from March 15th, to April 15th with an opening reception at the gallery on Saturday,  March 20th at 7:00 p.m.

More information, slideshow of exhibited paintings, artist biography and price list....

About the Artist

Joining the TKM Gallery for the gala event, were our Russian partners, clients, friends, and family from around the world. The party was held at Cucina Nassi with host Valter Nassi providing outstanding food and dazzling entertainment by an Argentine tango orchestra!  The evening was full of holiday cheer with great food, wine and a surprise visit by Santa Claus.

 

Hard Times: An artistic interpretation of America facing economic hardship

A misbegotten man is slumped along the curbside, dejected and alone. The passersby hurriedly stroll behind him, oblivious to his plight. He’s a castaway from an inhospitable world that is mired in economic struggles, a lonely and dejected figure who is a product of the time he faces. This Forgotten Man was painted by Maynard Dixon in 1934, yet he speaks so powerfully to us today.

There’s a portentous stillness hanging over America; the affluence that we thought would last forever has been replaced with apprehension, angst and fear.  According to Dr. Vern G. Swanson “Impending doom has cast an encroaching shadow upon the economic landscape and appears to be a harbinger for future want and depression.”(1)  As suddenly as a thief in the night, the best of times for the Great American Empire has turned into the worst of times, the hard times in which we now live.

In November of 2009, 15 selected artists will lay down their artistic visions as sorrowful practitioners in the Land of Plenty and display their works at the Thomas Kearns McCarthey Gallery.  These narrative works representing Hard Times in America are intended to bring the viewer closer to the malaise that grips our society, and are designed to speak to a generation abruptly thrust into an abyss of trepidation and uncertainty.

The unencumbered portrayals are the contributing artists’ responses to a world in turmoil, with intent to invoke understanding for the subjects they depict.  They are kindred in their resemblance to the works of The Regionalist Artists of The American Scene in the 1930’s including: Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, John Stuart Curry, Dorothea Lange, and Maynard Dixon, whose first -hand recollections and images of The Great Depression became bona fide emblems for future generations. It was through this movement that realities of life were explored using contemporary genre as inspiration, creating artistic expressions that were candid in their approach.

As a result, the artists of the Depression left behind some of the most poignant and memorable narratives in the history of American Art. The indelible images left by Dorothea Lange of impoverished mothers and children, migrant workers and homelessness were witnessed through her camera lens. These images remain etched in the mind and speak to the social consciousness of our own society. Likewise the artwork of Maynard Dixon left a legacy of paintings that invoke a similar response from the viewer.

Dixon lived and experienced the Hard Times and was no stranger to poverty. Many of his paintings of the 1930’s parallel the struggles of the Detroit layoffs,  home and business foreclosures, and the plight of the working class and the struggle in America today. Dixon stated: “The Depression woke me up to the fact that I had a part in all this, as an artist.” “Painting is a means to an end. It is my way of saying what I want you to comprehend. It is my testimony in regard to life and therefore I cannot lie in paint.” (2)  Dixon’s candid interpretation and uncompromising truths have created a timeless message for today’s audience.

In like manner, the exhibition of Hard Times will tell the story of our day in an extraordinary way.  Eugene Delacroix once said “A writer has to say almost everything in order to make himself understood, but in painting it is as if a mysterious bridge were set up between the spirit of the persons in the picture and the beholder.… but inwardly he meditates, the true thinking that is common to all men.”(3)

It is through this meditation that the viewer gains an introspective view, and these are metaphors that inculcate meaning without words. These are works of art that challenge the viewer to confront the uncertainties and issues of the here and now. They unveil harsh realities of today’s existence, exposing the doubt and vulnerability that many in this nation feel.  It is through this process that the viewer gains a sense of recognition for humanity and feels the burden of his brother.  

Hard Times is scheduled to open November 16, 2009 at the Thomas Kearns McCarthey Gallery in Park  City, Utah. The exhibition will be sponsored by Jim Dabakis, coordinated by Kai Bolger and curated by Traci Fieldsted.  After concluding its run in Park City on December 15, 2009, the exhibition will travel to various venues across the country. Participating artists will Include Sean T. Diediker, Jeffrey R. Hein. Brian Kershisnik, Ben McPherson, Trevor Southey, Burton Silverman, Gary Ernest Smith and Justin Taylor.

^{1. From an unpublished interview  with Dr. Vern G. Swanson,  July 10, 2009
2. Donald J. Haggerty Desert Dreams:  the Art and Life of Maynard Dixon (Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith publisher, 1998), p.206
3. Juliette Aristides Classical drawing Atelier (New York: Watson-Guptill publications, 2006), p.105}

Hard Times: An Artist’s View
Exhibition Review by Philipp Malzl, Ph.D.

An intriguing tension begins to grow from the moment spectators first approach the art in the recent exhibition Hard Times. In this particular setting, two thoroughly disparate worlds collide. One the one hand we find material affluence, while on the other, nothing but emotional and temporal destitution. The vehicle of visual art, in the meanwhile, performs the function of an anything-but-neutral mediator, facilitating the curious juxtaposition of such ironically contrasting versions of “reality.” It is precisely this juxtaposition which adds numerous layers of meaning to the otherwise rather transparent premise of the exhibition. The strident collision of societal spheres in the fine arts is, of course, not unique to America’s present “hard times” but hearkens back to historical precedents even before the original depression of the 1930s. This phenomenon originated within the tumultuous environment of the industrial revolution of mid-nineteenth century France and England. At that time, a number of audacious Social Realist painters, including Honoré Daumier, Jean-François Millet, Thomas Faed, Ford Madox Brown and, above all, Gustave Courbet,confronted the middle and upper class in unabashed fashion with the economic struggles experienced by those less fortunate: the stone breakers, gleaners and emigrants. It is remarkable that these very types of subjects have once again been infused with absolute relevance in our present day.  In terms of subject matter, Gary Ernest Smith, Justin Taylor, David Linn and Harvey Dinnerstein present us with images that relate very directly to the “hard times” America faces today, whereas the remaining artists portray types of people and situations which are equally palpable, yet not necessarily specific to our present economic crisis: the transient; the homeless; the drunkard, and the ever-present manual laborer. Such subjects have shadowed modern society from the outset and have found their way into art exhibitions for decades.

Dec. 4 2009 (Bloomberg) -- Four London auction houses sold 39.7 million pounds ($65.7 million) of Russian art in four days of sales this week as wealthy collectors returned to the market after a year of declines in prices and demand.
The total was an increase of 37 percent over the market’s low in June when Bonhams, Christie’s International, MacDougall’s and Sotheby’s sold 29 million pounds of Russian art.

“The week’s results confirm the market’s recovery,” said William MacDougall, co-director of MacDougall’s. “Oil prices have gone up, economies are picking up, and people again have money to spend and need to put it somewhere.”
While the total missed estimates of as much as 55 million pounds, it was the most for any series of Russian sales for a year. Sotheby’s in New York sold $13.8 million of Russian art on Nov. 2. London auction houses form the center of global Russian art sales. Most works are sourced from private American and European collections, while most buyers are from Russia and Ukraine.

Billionaires are looking for bargains as their wealth rises, dealers said. The Russian government forecasts some economic growth in 2010, after the country’s economy shrank about 10 percent in 2009’s first half as prices declined for commodities such as oil.

Sotheby’s had the highest total. It sold 19.4 million pounds of Imperial heirlooms, Faberge items and 19th-century and 20th-century paintings. The U.S.-based company sold 74 percent of 540 lots that had a top presale estimate of 21.2 million pounds.

Sale Totals

MacDougall’s, which specializes in Russian art, finished second, selling 9.4 million pounds of paintings and icons that had a low estimate of 12.5 million pounds. Christie’s sold 70 percent of 570 lots for 8.9 million pounds, below a top estimate of 9.3 million pounds. Bonhams sold 1.9 million pounds of Russian paintings.

“The market has two locations and realities,” said Ildar Galeyev, owner of Galeyev Gallery in Moscow. “There’s the Moscow market, where we don’t see signs of recovery since the crisis began. Then there’s London where we see the market growing. Russians prefer to buy in London for a number of reasons, for instance, they have more trust in the major auction houses.”

MacDougall’s finished first in the week’s main category, 19th- and 20th-century paintings, with sales of 8.6 million pounds. Sotheby’s finished second in paintings with 8.4 million pounds, and Christie’s sold 4.2 million.

Buddhist Monk

MacDougall’s had the week’s most expensive lot, Nicholas Roerich’s modernist “Sangacheling” (circa 1924), which sold to a Moscow collector on the telephone for 1.13 million pounds on a top estimate of 700,000 pounds. The oil-on-canvas work shows a Buddhist monk meditating in the mountains.

MacDougall’s, founded in 2004 by a wife and husband who formerly worked in the City of London, also sold a nude picture by Zinaida Serebriakova to a Ukrainian collector for 1.1 million pounds, which was the low estimate. It was the week’s second most expensive item.

On Nov. 30, Sotheby’s in London sold all 108 lots from an heirloom collection that once belonged to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, wife to Emperor Alexander III’s brother. The auction raised 7 million pounds on a top estimate of 900,000 pounds.

Sotheby’s most expensive item was Alexandra Exter’s “Venice” (1925), which sold for 1.05 million pounds on a top estimate of 1.2 million pounds.

On Dec. 2, Christie’s sold Roerich’s “Legend” (1923) -- showing another medieval scribe standing on a mountain -- for 993,000 pounds, beating a top estimate of 900,000 pounds.

On Nov. 30, the most expensive lot at Bonhams was Ivan Aivazovsky’s “The Morning Catch” (1870), which sold for 378,000 pounds, exceeding a top estimate of 250,000 pounds.
By John Varoli

^{(John Varoli writes for Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer on the story: John Varoli in London at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Last Updated: December 3, 2009 20:31 EST}