It so happened that 2025 was for me a time of decisive revision of my artistic ideas and methods, most of which I spent in the regions working on major projects. The first of them, called the “Gothic Empire”, was shown this summer at the Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum. The curator of this project was Sergei Khachaturov, with whom I have a long story of creative collaboration. The second project, "Wheels of History", curated by Kirill Svetlyakov, was held in autumn at the Ivanovo railway station as part of the First Avant-Garde Factory festival. The result was two dozen works of art that formed, as it seems to me, an independent chapter in my creative work. So, after analyzing what I had done earlier in two famous Russian cities, I decided to show these works in Moscow and thus complete my small tour in 2025.
The title "Red and Black" contains the simplest color characteristics of the series presented together. The "red" paintings constitute the Ivanovo cycle, the "black" ones — the Nizhny Novgorod cycle. Two consecutive experiences in monochrome painting, which I had previously referred to only sporadically. I deliberately decided to take a kind of coloristic austerity, temporarily abandoning a wide full-color palette in order to focus on images and the overall atmosphere. For a figurative painting technique, in which i generally work, abdication of color — is a serious risk. Striking shades and bravura brushstrokes can sometimes act as a cover for creative dullness and poverty of imagination. Monochromy is indeed an excellent school of self–discipline and self-education, even for an experienced artist. Not by accident, many of the key works of world painting — from paleolithic cave paintings to the paintings of the “House of the Deaf” by Goya and, finally, Picasso's "Guernica" – are monochrome.
Among other things, I think that the current historical period requires some plastic rigor and self-restraint from the artist, which the traditional grisaille technique can serve as effectively as possible.
The spectators who have followed my development in recent years, I believe, will notice a certain change in the author's intonation and a new range of themes.There is significantly less irony and stylistic games in the presented paintings. On the contrary, I tried to work simply and seriously, as much as I could. This applies both to formal artistic techniques and, of course, to the themes chosen for the work. I am well aware that some of them were almost taboo in modern art until recently (in particular, scenes from the Gospel), I consider it necessary and honest for myself as an artist to refer to them and entrust the audience with the results of my artistic work.
