Contemporary paintings for which buyers of the Sotheby's and Christie's auctions are fighting: What is the uniqueness of Andrey Zakharov's paintings

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

Creation Andrey Zakharov, one of the most recognizable and popular artists in Russia, belongs to the brightest achievements of modern Russian impressionist landscape painting. A gifted painter from Kostroma, with a bold manner of painting, he creates lyrical landscapes filled with fleeting mood and expression. Each of his works contains the richest variety of native nature, the expressiveness and incredible beauty of the world around us, as well as pictorial poetry that reflects the refined feelings of the Russian soul.

Zakharov is an artist who to some extent moved away from the details of naturalism, found his unique style in the textured plasticity of impressionism and expressionism. At the same time, maintaining a reverent attitude towards nature and loyalty to the national traditions of Russian painting.

All his works, written as if in one breath, reflect not only the feelings and sensations of the artist himself, they are inherent in unique author's features. Although, at the first and superficial glance at Andrei Zakharov's paintings, there is a feeling of some kind of incompleteness … But it is worth taking a closer look, "getting used to" the plot and it becomes obvious that the master utterly "said" everything that was conceived. His striking minimalism and emotional mood captivates even the discerning viewer.

The manner of painting literally captures with powerful expression. A rich color palette makes light, color and shadow play equally. Body strokes of oil paint, applied to the canvas, to a greater extent with a palette knife, stand out not only for their brightness, but also for their capacious texture, giving rise to a delightful painting.

Looking at each of the artist's paintings, filled with the pacified peace of the natural elements, it is impossible not to note that during his work the master uses individual techniques, and, depending on the mood of the atmospheric environment, a unique specific flavor. What unites all Zakharov's works is the penetrating poetry of sunlight, which literally makes each of his works play with a bright color scheme.

The master of color relations literally builds his painting on the finest coloristic solutions, but at the same time he thinks compositionally by and large, which gives his works a monumental sound, and the expressive movement of the palette knife creates an incredible richness of texture, makes the canvas vibrate from light and various color shades.

Andrey Zakharov's canvases, written with this universal instrument, embody not only the artist's characteristic pictorial plastic language - "a la prima", but also his personal attitude to reality, the need for its figurative interpretation and artistic interpretation.

A few words about the impressionist artist

Andrey Arkadievich Zakharov (1967) is from Rostov the Great, in the Yaroslavl region. The future artist from the age of five began to attend an art school, which later determined the fate of the boy, who, already in his youth, firmly decided that he would become an artist. The choice of a profession was also facilitated by the fact that the artist's maternal great-grandfather, Zakhar Rzhevsky, was a self-taught artist.

In 1981, Andrei entered the Fedoskino school, where he studied miniature lacquer painting, and then at the Yaroslavl Art School, from where he graduated in 1987 as a certified artist.

While still a student, Andrei began to participate in art exhibitions in Russia, and later exhibited in some European countries. In recent years, Zakharov has been a permanent participant in numerous exhibitions and plein airs in Russia and abroad: in Poland, Hungary, Montenegro, Italy, Greece, France, Germany and China. He also participates in charity auctions at the largest auction houses in the world - Sotheby's and Christie's. And, perhaps, it is superfluous to talk about how famous and popular the works of the Russian contemporary impressionist are among world-class collectors.

The artistic talent and pictorial manner of the Kostroma master have found wide recognition, both among compatriots and art connoisseurs around the world. Today, many of the master's works are the property of the national state art museums of Kostroma, Belgorod, Voronezh, Vyshny Volochyok, Rostov the Great, St. Petersburg. Well, the lion's share of Andrei Zakharov's works is in private collections of collectors, as well as in various state museums and leading galleries in many countries of the world.

Andrey Zakharov is a member of the Union of Artists of Russia, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, a member of the International Art Fund, and this list can be continued, since the master has a lot of titles and degrees. He was also awarded the gold and silver medals of the Russian Academy of Arts, of which he has been a corresponding member for many years.

Andrey Zakharov - plein air and traveler

Nowadays, not many masters can say that they write their works directly in the open air. Andrey Zakharov is an exception, it is very difficult to find him at work in a workshop, usually he spends all his time traveling to different parts of the world. Being engaged in creativity, he works exclusively from nature. Thanks to the impressionistic mobility of the stroke, the master accurately and sharply captures the fleeting state of nature, its slightest changes in lighting, color, air movement.

Andrey Zakharov is an avid traveler, the geography of his creative trips is wide and varied. The painter has repeatedly visited the Russian North, which he especially loves. On the White Sea, in Karelia, the Komi Republic and Kholmogory, among the untouched northern nature, he wrote the best of his works, in which he put powerful epic images of the harsh natural environment.

Returning from each trip, the master brings many sketches and natural landscapes, which uniquely reflect his personal perception of what he saw, his own ideas about the originality of nature and urban landscapes of different countries.

And finally, I would also like to acquaint our reader with the amazing still lifes that Andrei Zakharov's wife, Marina, creates. This An artist from the Russian hinterland paints floral still lifes of divine beauty.