EVENTS / CULTURE
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RUSSKY LONDON 30/10/13
БОРИС ЧЕТКОВ НА RUSSIAN ART WEEK Fri 22 November 2013 - Sun 24 November 2013 S
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Re-Imagining Russia: The Landscape and Genre Paintings of Boris Chetkov will open at the Westbury Hotel in Mayfair i gR Th
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theme throughout the work of Chetkov is the communication of a raw and emotional response to the natural and physical world. Be it a still life, landscape, portrait or genre painting, Chetkov strove to capture the emotional and dynamic essence of his subject. Mixing hints of folk art and primitivism, spirituality and the pre-war avant-ga
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visually and thematically reminiscent of the early works of Wassily Kandinsky, Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov. His landscape paintings, showing the rivers, forests and historic churches of Russia transform the local countryside through gestural brush sweeps and vibrant colours, engaging with the environment on a conscious and subconscious level.
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most oppressive years of the Soviet Union, Chetkov spent his early life on communal farms before being imprisoned in the infamous Gulag Archipelago during his late teens. After combat in the Second World War and his subsequent release from detention, Chetkov studied the art of glass making and began to paint in isolation from established artistic groups and schools. For the duration of his career Chetkov followed his own vision apart from any conscious trend or political movement, separated from the work of Nonconformist and conceptual contemporaries such as Ilya Kabakov, Vladimir
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imposed norm. He never sought out the acceptance of these other underground artists and was never recognized by h m
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. In a sense, he had no peers. Yet he never held any grudges or
harboured any bitterness; he remained content in his own world. Chetkov was a bold experimenter who took artistic risks which resulted in the creation of original and stunning images. This exhibition will explore the unique development of Ch k v’ ca
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decade of his life.
The exhibition is timed to coincide with Russian Art Week, the leading bi-annual Russian art event in the UK when major paintings and works of Russian art are sold and exhibited in London. Showing for a strictly limited period, the exhibition will take place on the first weekend of Russian Art Week and act as the official opening of the event. An accompanying catalogue will be available for purchase containing a number of previously unpublished works by the artists and an aca
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h context of modernism in the twentieth
century and the rise of abstract painting. The book will take a biographical approach to introduce Chetkov to a new audience and includes previously unseen archival material. The publication also features a number of early works dating from 1955-1973.