Erarta Galleries London is delighted to present Painting & Drawing a new exhibition by Vyacheslav Mikhailov. One of St. Petersburg’s best-known artists, Mikhailov’s paintings have been exhibited in the Hermitage and are in the permanent collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the Zimmereli Collection in New York, and the Shanghai Museum of International Art, but what of his drawings? Quickly drawn and full of energy, Mikhailov’s drawings are at once in contrast to his concentrated and still paintings and an interesting counterpoint to their considered severity. Shown hanging to allow close comparison, we are offered an interesting insight to Mikhailov’s modes of working and how he paints and draws.

Mikhailov paints in series, and often over the course of years, as he distils his paintings to perfectly balanced essentialism. He doesn’t like to limit his paintings by assigning them titles, but opts instead for place names to provide poetic allusion and gentle association. The titles of his paintings, Morning at the Fontanka River for example, ground them as it were and transpose the visual impression of his carefully conceived abstractions into concrete reality. There is an otherworldly stillness about his paintings, a stillness that doesn’t exist in his drawings. Where Mikhailov’s paintings transcend reality with saturated hues creating a firm structure and finality, his drawings capture a rawness that seems more in keeping with the artist’s assertion that “art is life.”

Mikhailov prefers drawing from memory rather than from directly observed life, and says that he has always drawn feelings. This approach to drawing ensures that his sketches are rich with empathy. While his paintings have a tactile physicality and a great sense of space and time, his drawings are awash with liquid colour and quick calligraphic lines. Drawing everyday, Mikhailov’s sketches function as a diary recording the events of his life – time spent working with artist models shows the closeness between artist and model and dancing is seen as the clumsy yet joyful act it often is. His drawings capture a surge of emotion, the spontaneity of life.

In both his paintings and drawings Mikhailov explores the boundaries of recognition. His paintings create a sense of mystery, his drawings embrace live impulses. Working from memory, Mikailov refines the details and fragments of his visual experiences to recreate the essence of what he has seen and felt. In all his work, whether the carefully constructed spatial physicality of his paintings or the momentary sprezzatura of his drawings, there is a unity of form and a harmony of expression. Vyacheslav Mikhailov is a master, whether painting or drawing.

Erarta Gallery
8 Berkeley Street
London W1J 8DN United Kingdom
Ph. +44 (0) 20 7499 7861
london@erartagalleries.com
www.erartagalleries.com

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