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St. Andrey Rublyov.
The Trinity.
1420-th.
Tretyakov Art Gallery, Moscow.
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The Evening Pervouralsk
#28 from february 12, 2000.
Scarlet bells ringing at dawn
In 1994, at the retrospective art exhibition of the community studio «Izograf» was held at The Palace of Culture of Novotrubnyi's plant,
I encountered for the first time the paintings of Alexander Styazhkin, that were presented there. At that time, it seems to me, he was only in his second year at the studio. The studio's director Vladimir Ivanivich Susanov didn't intend to keep young artists' paintings in reserve.
The art exhibitions of the studio were held every year, and almost every one of them embodied new projects of Alexander Styazhkin. The brush of the young artist became more and more skilful, full of ideas and creative fever.
His paintings more and more reflected his personality, originality and compositional distinction.
And this is the third week now since the exhibition hall of «Izograf» studio
on the ground floor of the Novotrubnyi's Palace of Culture contains a large personal exhibition of Alexander Syazhkin with more than a hundred paintings of seven years creative work presented for the judgement of amateurs.
…A few minutes after opening, the hall was filled with thirty or forty spectators. Among them were the author, Vladimir Susanov, the director of «Izograf», Ivan Chukharev and others.
Alexander himself was dressed in style and quietly excited. No wonder, this personal exhibition is the first in his life, and this is always a special day for a creative soul.
To give him moral support there were his colleagues not only from «Izograf», but also from the Novo-
trubnyi plant, where Alexander is now working as a lathe-operator. They are a joyful and open sort of folk.
Perhaps, the first thing that Alexander expected from his industrial friends was a tricky question, of the sort: "Well, now show us what you scratched-up with your brush?"
On the contrary, their response was of the warmest sort.
Vladimir Ivanovich Susanov on behalf of the head of the studio said kind and sensitive words about Alexander's creative growth, about his work ability,
about his direct participation in shaping the exhibition , and this is also a great deal of work.
After that spectators were left alone with the artist's paintings.
All around there were more and more people, young, elderly, kids; some of them were coming, some leaving. They were chatting quietly, exchanging their impressions, standing quite a long time near one or another painting…
I spent around an hour and a half at the exhibition that evening, and, to tell the truth, could have stayed and admired those landscapes, still natures, and sketches as much time again, if I wasn't in a hurry.
Due to his present creative disposition, Alexander is inclined towards land-
scapes. On his paintings nature is smiling, frowning, fighting, in all its forms. However, almost all artists of «Izograf» studio are in love with this genre.
And how could one not love landscapes, if one was born and grew up in our motherland of our unique, but still pale, Ural nature, with its fir wilderness of woods, with its poetic round dance of birch- trees, with its thoughtful river shores and sunsets, with its smell of forests, wild strawberry fields, and with floods of daisies, touching to the heart ...
Alexander Styazhkin, no doubt, is a gifted man. Let's say, so far its a cocoon, and it is not known, whether out of it will appear a butterfly, and if it reappears, which colour will it be? So it is with a learning painter, who only with time will display his own way of doing things,
own style, and manner, eventually turning into an original creator, whose creative handwriting one won't mix with another's. I think, our young author is now somewhere in the middle of this route, if one remembers that the full formation of an artist lasts around twenty years.
I personally got attracted to that exhibition, where the observing eye of the painter and his obedient brush turns what seem to be insignificant and even non-special "subjects" of nature, which we hardly stop our eye on when we meet them in the forest, into poetic images.
The names of these colourful miniatures speak for themselves: "The branch
of a fur-tree", "An old stump", "First born" (five shy gentle spring flowers of daffodils), "Ryabinka", "Prickle".
And every single one of them was painted with such love, with such poetic fullness, that one can straight away start to write
a lyrical story in prose. This is a characteristic of a real artist - to see an ocean
in a single drop of dew.
I admired some painting named "The Sun's major" for a long time, which is full of light. It passes on the artist's love for the dear Ural region, especially visually.
On the canvas there is one of those quiet light days of early September in our forest neighbourhood. There's a shore, where the amber of September bushes is running down to the river to reflect itself in its quietly peaceful waters.
Above there are thin candles of already leafless birch- trees. And above all
there is a luxurious, deep blue sky. Paintings like this live in one's memory for
a long time.
And here it is "A morning on Chusovaya- river", which is a blow to the soul with poetic peace. Here is "A little backyard", the magnificent corner in the old town, spied with the artist's vigilant eye and moved with a warm brush to the canvas.
Of course, I had a chance to speak with Alexander before the exhibition.
I knew, that in his time he was on conscription in the Khabarovsk region, and there, while a soldier, his passion for painting was discovered for the first time. It become known to me that now he is working on his paintings during long summer evenings in his mother's little flat, because he is unmarried yet.
Alexander said that he does not intend to stop on landscapes, but he will get
to know other genres, because the ever-searching nature of an artist must express itself in all directions.
Before leaving, I decided to look at the book of responses, which rested
on a little table. There where 8 spectators who had already expressed their opinion during this hour and a half. A young man, attentively bent over the table, was writing his own reflection, ninth in number.
All comments were benevolent, some of them even rapturous.
The exhibition will be held for many days more, and I, for example, recommend very much that one visits it, not only alone, but in families or groups, and even in school classes, working groups- let them be refreshed by the light, clean wave of creativeness of their young compatriot.
From that meeting with something beautiful, I personally have an impression akin to the magnificent song "Scarlet bells ringing at dawn", which I am ready to listen to every day again and again.
Alexei Bushmanov.
Photo: Sergei Batalov.
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