Erarta Museum presented non-figurative paintings by Konstantin Baydakov, succinct as the northern landscapes and authentic as the life of the coast dwellers
- Paintings gravitating towards sculpture and object
- Return to the traditional roots of abstraction
- Northern nature condensed to the size of a canvas
Konstantin Baydakov lives and works in Severodvinsk, the place where the Northern Dvina River flows into the White Sea. In many ways, his paintings resonate with the experiments of the first avant-garde artists at the turn of the 20th century. Baydakov does not really paint pictures: instead, he literally coats his canvases with paint, returning to the folk roots of abstraction. His artworks resemble homespun cloths or fishing nets hung out to dry, or walls of wooden houses and fences washed by countless rains. A true example of the synthesis of arts, Baydakov’s canvas becomes three-dimensional, seeking to step beyond its frame and turn into a sculpture.
Konstantin’s creations display a very northern kind of conciseness, as if shaped by the harsh climate and the innate hardiness of the coast dwellers. His works evoke the northern nature with its straight horizons and low skies, flat sandy coasts of the cold sea with fiery sunsets and the wash of grey waves. Ringing with blue frost, northern lights ripple across space . . . By incising his canvases, the artist reveals the naturally ragged edges of their surface, transforming it into a landscape wherein the forest meets the river, the sea meets the sky, and the polar day meets the white night. Baydakov’s abstraction is the ultimate expression of life amid the northern nature.
The exhibition space will also showcase an art object by Sergey Karev – a boat symbolising the water-abundant North.
