Yevgeni Bakakshin. Before the Dance. 2000

Before the Dance (Yevgeni Balakshin, 2000)

I post this for my new acquaintance Bill Jones. He mentioned that he had a Russian painting with a ballerina as the subject that he enjoyed, so, I post a companion work for you, Bill. He and Lisa Towers have an excellent site called A Daily Column on Painting, it is listed on the blogroll. Do give it a look, because their viewpoints as practising artists differ from mine, as I am only a life-long art lover, not a serving soldier in the artistic trenches.

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Valery Fedotov. A Still Life with Apples. 2006

A Still Life with Apples (Valery Fedotov, 2006)

Do note the red-blue-white background to the fruit. Those are the colours of the Russian flag, a slight hint as to Mr Fedotov’s patriotism, I would say!

Valery Fedotov. A Girl in the Rye. 2007

A Girl in the Rye (Valery Fedotov, 2007)

This is a good example of modern classical realism. In general, there has been a move away from non-representational art, but in Russia, there are added dimensions. There, those who praise non-representational art tend to be Western leaning, and in favour of “Western democracy” (an overrated creature, if there ever was one). The realist artists tend to be more conservative socially and more “Orthodox” in their religious beliefs. They tend to be patriots, whereas the non-representational artists tend towards fashionable Western leftist anti-patriotism. In short, I tend to approve of the Russian Neo-Realists for reasons besides their art (which is drop-dead GOOD, in any case). Incidentally, the only realists who are not conservative socially are those who paint nudes (I wonder why!).

Valery Fedotov is better known for his work in still life, and I shall post one of those above this work.