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Video: As a descendant of the royal family of the Romanovs, he became the "king of abstraction" and painted pictures in which only form and color
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Alexander Richelieu-Beridze is a Russian abstract painter living in France. His style can be defined as abstract expressionism, in which there is no plot, but there are forms and colors. Interestingly, Beridze's ancestors belonged to the royal family of the Romanovs. Is it true that he is called the "king of abstraction" in France, and how did he become a trendsetter in the French capital?
Artist biography
Alexander Richelieu-Beridze is a Russian artist born in Leningrad in 1975. He is the grandson of the famous Russian artist Fyodor Kholenkov, and it was his grandfather who instilled in his grandson a love of art, and also helped him develop his own vision of the world.
When Alexander was 4 years old, he asked his grandfather to draw airplanes and tanks, but his grandfather did not want to return to the memories of World War II. To interest his grandson, Fyodor Kholenkov decided to teach him the basics of drawing. By the way, Alexander himself was named after his great-grandfather Alexander Dmitrievich Kononov, a timber merchant from a noble St. Petersburg family, closely associated with the royal family of the Romanovs. Alexander Dmitrievich Kononov and Anna Maria Richelieu, Beridze's great-grandmother of French origin, were famous patrons of the arts.
Young Beridze decided to follow in his grandfather's footsteps and entered the School of Fine Arts in Tbilisi, Georgia. His work was also influenced by one extraordinary group of artists in the 1990s. The YBA are young British artists who defined the artistic culture of the late 20th century. The most famous member of the group is Damien Hirst, other members included Chris Ofili, Tracey Emin, Mark Quinn, Gavin Turk, Sara Lucas and Sam Taylor-Johnson. YBA are famous for their use of sensationalism in their art, along with the use of disposables, wild lifestyle and rebellious attitude.
After receiving widespread media coverage, the YBA dominated British art in the 1990s. Relationship aesthetics is a term coined by group curator Nicholas Burriot to describe the process of creating art based on human relationships and their social context. This idea became central in the 1990s.
Initially, Beridze began his career as a graphic designer in Paris in the advertising department. During this period, he lived with the motto "Better less, but better." In parallel, Beridze worked as an interior designer for private houses and boutiques of major brands. For example, he created the visual concept for Sonia Rykiel, Kenzo and Galeries Lafayette, later becoming a real trendsetter.
Since 2005, Alexander Beridze has been holding personal exhibitions. The most notable was the exhibition organized in Paris in 2011 at the Adler Gallery. After her, Bertrand Saint Vincent, editor-in-chief of the famous French newspaper Le Figaro, dedicated an article to Beridze on the front page of his publication. In the same year, Beridze participated in the Art Paris Fair and was included by the Journal du Net in the list of “10 most promising artists in France”. In 2014, Beridze participated in the Florence Biennale, where he was awarded the Prize named after A. Sandro Botticelli, awarded to talented contemporary artists. This was followed by numerous solo exhibitions in Paris, Monaco, Nice and Brussels.
Beridze's creativity
Depending on the idea, Beridze uses a variety of methods and techniques in his work, from geometric abstraction and academic figurativeness to modern instruments. He was fascinated by the dualism of things from a very early age, which is manifested in his fascination with black and white compositions. “Seeing things in one color, in monochrome, has always helped me to discover volume in forms,” said the artist.
In 2010, the artist created his own theory of art called "Colored Lines". The essence of the theory is that everything around consists of colored fragments and lines, which together make up a single picture. The result of such eclecticism is art, which the artist himself calls abstract expressionism.
Acquiring and building up his experience in abstractionism, Beridze gradually brought more emotions into his work, revealing to his viewers a different style of art - abstract expressionism. Many art critics argue that Beridze's artistic core is based on Russian avant-garde and constructivist artists, as well as Malevich's Suprematism and the color expression of the New York school of expressive abstraction.
Today Alexander Richelieu-Beridze is the founder of the Free Painter art movement, whose philosophy is to return the word Fine to art. The works of Alexander Richelieu-Beridze adorn the private collections of celebrities.
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