Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art presents Ashes, an exhibition by Evgeniy Kravtsov showcasing artworks that explore the impermanent nature of human memory
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Archetypal imagery that resembles the viewers’ own remembrances
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A monochrome palette and subdued inner light creating the impression of a sacred rite
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Objects, occurrences, and landscapes posited as points of bearing that preserve what we value most
Human recollections are often distorted not only in meaning but also visually – for instance, they may change colours, brightening up for some and acquiring warm dark hues for others. Sometimes our own experiences are replaced by film stills, while historical events may be imagined in black and white, as in the old photographs. Evgeniy Kravtsov simultaneously draws on the film aesthetics and creates imagery so archetypal that it resembles the viewers’ own remembrances.
The exhibition showcases works from different series and different time periods. Of particular note are the three pieces from the Corrosion series that had been nominated for the Erarta Prize. Here, we see the rusting figures of peasants wielding various tools seemingly dissolve in their native landscape, transforming into soil, water, and air. Everything is subject to entropy, and the artist pays a metaphorical tribute to the vanishing era of manual labour, to his fellow countrymen and his home village.
The artist has devised a painterly technique of his own, enhancing the oil on canvas medium with sepia and sanguine – pigment chalks that lend his pictures a soft matte texture. As a result, the coarse surface of the painting becomes animated and vibrant. The monochrome palette adds more weight to the visuals, while the invariably subdued light that appears to shine from within creates the impression of some sacred rite.
Giving much attention to detail, Kravtsov nevertheless discards all that is superfluous. This is the way human memory works – erasing trifles and condensing the essence. Evgeniy Kravtsov’s signature method is that of introspection. His paintings address the realms of both his private memory and the shared collective one. The objects, occurrences, and landscapes he depicts are not specific things or scenes, but rather points of bearing that we use to preserve what is most valuable to us – until we, too, turn into ashes.
Evgeniy Kravtsov was born in the Altai Krai in 1965. In 1989, he graduated from the Novoaltaisk State Art College and, in 1996, from the Ilya Glazunov Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Moscow. Since 2013, Kravtsov has been chairing the Drawing and Painting Department of the Moscow Academic Art College. The artist took part in painting the Holy Doors at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and in recreating the historical curtain of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. His works are found in several museums across Russia as well as in private collections.
