Fantastic paintings about women, for which the artist from Minsk received an award at the Paris Salon

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The paintings of this artist amaze the viewer with their phantasmagoria, catchy color, mix of styles and incredible compositions. His works cannot be unequivocally attributed to any one artistic direction - they organically coexist surrealism and modernism, fantasy and neo-romanticism, as well as theater and acting. Meet today in our publication the unique work of a famous modern painter from Minsk Roman Zaslonova, who has lived and worked in Paris for many years.

Roman Zaslonov is a fairly well-known and popular Belarusian artist in the European cultural community who lives in two houses. Having received an academic education and a good career start in his hometown of Minsk, Roman moved to France, where his talent was soon noticed and appreciated. The recognition of the Belarusian artist by the French public and art critics was awarded the first prize at the Autumn Salon in Paris in 1997. Subsequently, Roman Zaslonov has repeatedly received various awards and prizes from prestigious European galleries.

And this is how it all began

Contemporary artist Roman Zaslonov was born in 1962 in the capital of Belarus into a creative family. His mother, Isa Zaslonova, is a writer and professional artist; his father, Leonid Vladimirovich Galperin, is also a well-known watercolor painter. Roman's grandfather is the legendary Konstantin Zaslonov, Hero of the Soviet Union, who went through the pitch hell of the Great Patriotic War.

Of course, the talented boy, brought up in such an extraordinary environment, had no other way but to follow in the footsteps of his parents. Therefore, after graduating from school, and art, including, Roman Zaslonov immediately became a student of the Belarusian State Theater and Art Institute (now - the Academy of Arts). After graduation, in 1985, he worked fruitfully in creative workshops at the Academy of Arts in Minsk.

It should be noted that even in his student years, Roman participated in all kinds of republican and all-Union exhibitions. Even then, his works aroused increased interest among the viewer by the extraordinary presentation of images and the natural environment of his native land. Already at that time, the young artist painted village landscapes, subject paintings and portraits of his contemporaries, interpreting them through the prism of his worldview. Moreover, he wrote so well that the novice master had imitators and successors, and even those who forged his work. And this, as you understand, is an eloquent testimony to the author's style, successfully found and acquired by Zaslonov. Since 1990, the young painter has become a member of the Belarusian Union of Artists.

By the way, several works of the young painter of that period are in the collection of the National Art Museum of Belarus. After all, not many novice masters are honored with such an honor. However, Roman always had an abundance of buyers, they liked his original work.

Yes, what can I say, the career of a novice painter at Zaslonov in Minsk was developing as well as possible. But, the ambitious artist wanted not only something more, but also significant changes, so he decided to try his luck outside his homeland.

Having left for Europe, he settled in France, which enthusiastically accepted and appreciated the talent of the Belarusian painter. Now Roman Zaslonov has his own mansion with a large workshop on the outskirts of Paris. He successfully collaborates with many leading European galleries, participates in exhibitions, sometimes comes to Minsk for a long time, where he also has his own workshop in the center of the capital and arranges his exhibitions in different cities of the country.

Sharp turns in the work of the Belarusian master

Colleagues, artists who knew Roman from his student years, when they saw his new works, painted in France, shrugged their shoulders in surprise. Zaslonov's painting became completely unlike the previous, realistic one. Many did not believe that he was so cool to change his style and developed author's handwriting in order to write in a new way.

But time passed, and they gradually got used to the "new" Zaslonov, looked closely, and appreciated it in Belarus itself. If they remembered his first successful student experiments, then with a kind smile. By the way, the artist's new works were sold many times better than the first ones. Of course, many colleagues in the shop were annoyed by this, and some even said that this was a profanation of art, although everything was done professionally and competently. Nevertheless, Zaslonov continued to move along the new knurled path, successfully working in the found style.

Genres, styles, techniques

As you can see, the artist works in the genres of portrait, landscape, historical painting and "realistic figurative painting, with elements of fantasy and surrealism" - this is how he defines his work.

And what we see can hardly be attributed to any one genre. The art of Roman Zaslonov is truly super complicated. It organically combines the traditions of classical painting with the techniques of modernism and postmodernism, "tasty" seasoned with surrealism and fantasy. And the question is, "Is it good or bad?" - it does not matter, because he synthesizes them into one whole is simply excellent. The author is so convincing that the viewer understands the bright world of his multifaceted fantasies without words.

The image passing from picture to picture

The artist's paintings are a hymn to the Woman gracefully hovering over the hectic real everyday life. She is so similar and so unlike our contemporaries. It seems that just yesterday we saw her at the metro station, but today she seems to have descended from the canvases of the old masters to the paintings of the artist.

The main character is a beautiful red-haired lady, wandering from picture to picture, who twirls the men as she wants. They are always at her service, and always secondary characters. The artist is often asked the same question who she is: To which he replies:

These almost magically fabulous improvisations of the artist, despite the illusory and implausibility, tell the viewer about the intricate inner life of the red-haired beauty, with secrets, riddles and troubles. Nevertheless, the artist leads his viewer to the fact that everything that we see on the canvas, to one degree or another, happens to a woman every day in real life. The fireworks of emotions accompanying her every step, her every deed, becomes an inexhaustible source of inspiration for the artist.

Take a closer look - this is happening around us in real life. But only a real artist was able to see and tell about the true beauty of a woman and her life.

Separately, I would like to note the abundance of details and various characters on the canvases. This is one of the brightest moments of the artist's creative style, which thus attracts the viewer with different tastes and preferences.

Summing up the above, I must say that historians from art divide the entire creative path of the artist into three stages, three time periods, each of which is completely different from the previous one. Let's remember, the first is the Minsk period, the second is the Parisian one. And what is the third? Almost a decade ago, Roman Leonidovich took part in a competition announced by the Center for Contemporary Art for the best project proposal for the largest international exhibition - the Venice Biennale.

Fortune smiled at the lucky Zaslonov again. His proposal was recognized as the best, and he became one of the authors and curator of the "Table" project. By the way, this project is very far from traditional painting, which Zaslonov was successfully engaged in. Now he has switched to theater and acting with live actors. This project was successfully presented at the Biennale, and in 2015, a large personal exhibition was held in Belarus, where the artist presented the project to the court of compatriots. They talked a lot about him, wrote, showed on television. This was a real recognition of the talent of Roman Zaslonov. However, this is a completely different story.

And Roman Zaslonov himself spoke about this:. And he is probably completely correct in this judgment. To always stay on the crest of fame, you need to keep up with the times, not being afraid to leave their homes.

Continuing the theme of artists for whom the image of a woman in their work has become the key, read our publication: Romantic female portraits of a Moscow artist who combined French Art Nouveau and Russian realism.