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Video: Moscow, which no longer exists, on the nostalgic primitive landscapes of Sergei Volkov
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Not often, contemplating works of modern art, you can get sincere positive emotions and aesthetic pleasure, smile kindly and feel a slight taste of nostalgia. However, having come into contact with creativity Moscow artist Sergei Volkovworking in the genre of a primitive urban landscape, the spectrum of these vivid feelings literally captures the viewer into nostalgic captivity. We bring to your attention an excellent selection of paintings dedicated to Moscow and Muscovites in the 70s and 80s.
It is difficult for those who are indifferent to pass by the painting of Sergei Vasilyevich Volkov. His paintings are interesting for both children and adults. Moreover, children look at them as something fabulous and toy, and adults feel a kind of subtle connection that draws into contemplation and clings to the thin strings of the soul, where islands of memory of those amazing times are still preserved, when people's life proceeded in a completely different rhythm, in other concerns and joy and had completely different values. Therefore, it would be most correct to say that Volkov's paintings are like a time machine, which carries away the modern mature viewer in the years of his childhood or adolescence.
Urban legends, fiction novels and anecdotes of the Soviet era, all this is clearly seen in the artist's works. The author's love for the capital and its inhabitants is transmitted to everyone who views the works of Sergei Volkov, so his work always finds a response in the souls of the audience.
About the artist
Sergey Volkov (born 1956) is from the city of Petrozavodsk. He moved to Moscow with his relatives at the age of 8. The capital conquered the gifted boy with its grandeur and architecture. In early childhood, he was very fond of drawing, so Volkov graduated from an art school at the same time as a secondary school. Then there was a study at the Abramtsevo art-industrial school named after. Vasnetsov. At the beginning of the 80s, Sergei Volkov became a permanent participant in all-Russian and international exhibitions. In 1990 he became a member of the Moscow Union of Artists-Painters.
The city landscape became the favorite theme of the aspiring artist. While still a student, he gradually, one by one, discovered Moscow boulevards. Studied their personality, their mood. "… The most theatrical is Tverskoy, the most intelligent is Chistoprudny, the dustiest is Yauzsky, the noisiest is Suvorovsky, the most literary is Gogolevsky …"
Over time, he discovered that if you walk through all Moscow boulevards, avenues and streets, combining the impressions of each of them, you get a unique panorama of the whole city. Volkov sincerely fell in love with what is now impossible to return or forge, namely, what is now defined by the phrase - "old Moscow". It was she who found reflection in the artist's work, and it was she who is the main character in all his paintings to this day.
Remembering the city of his youth, of course, Sergei Vasilyevich could not ignore the Arbat, a street that is considered a symbol of old Moscow.
About style and technique
As mentioned above, the artist works in the genre of a primitive urban landscape. It was this manner that allowed Volkov to create original paintings based on motives and themes, which are inherent in the Russian spirit and original ironic style.
The very primitive of Sergei Volkov, as an artistic device, is literally saturated with an atmosphere of soft lyricism, subtle irony and light comic. This technique is felt in the image of even the smallest details of metropolitan life. Seemingly stylized primitive paintings - fantasize as much as you like. But no, the painter - everything related to architectural ensembles, automobile transport, fashion in clothes, and many other details, tried to capture and convey to the viewer with documentary accuracy.
Volkov in his city of miracles, first of all, surprises the viewer with the intricacies of reality and fantasy, subtle humor and irony. Also interesting is the approach to the compositional solution, which is often used by the artist as a kind of whirlwind, to which all the action taking place on the picture plane is subordinated. The spherical horizon line used by the master looks very impressive and gives his work a special zest.
But that's not all. The artist often chooses a high point of view in his works, and sometimes he even makes the viewer soar above the ground. This technique allows you to cover as much as possible with a glance both objects and ongoing events.
Moscow streets and Muscovites
Once again, I would like to note that many of the subjects revealed by the artist emerge from the childhood and youth memories of the author himself, as well as from Moscow folklore and various anecdotal situations.
- this is how critics note the work of this amazing artist.
The originality of the artist in his relation to the chosen motives. He admires each of them, feels genuine sympathy for each of the characters.
In addition, Sergey Vasilyevich, sincerely in love with his city, with its inhabitants, in an amazing way conveys these warm feelings to the audience, filling their hearts with some kind of inner glow, and their faces with smiles.
And in conclusion, it must be said that the artist has many admirers of his talent all over the world. Many works by Sergei Volkov were included in the collections of the Ministry of Culture and the Union of Artists of Russia, but the lion's share of them went to private collections not only in Russia, but also in the USA, Canada, France, Spain, Austria, Italy. In Sweden alone, there are more than 130 paintings by the artist in collectors' collections.
P. S
On the rare occasions when Volkov manages to leisurely stroll through the familiar places of his beloved capital, he is often disappointed. The style of the city is changing rapidly, and not for the better, in his opinion. One after another, old buildings disappear, advertisements and signs cover the facades of houses, expensive restaurants, clubs and casinos are opening in the place of cozy cafes. Looking at all this, nostalgia literally attacks the artist. Nostalgia for Moscow, which no longer exists.
And at the end of our publication, we invite our reader to make nostalgic excursion through the old Moscow streets with paintings by Alexei Shalaev.
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