15.10 - 13.11.2010
Vladimir Zagorov
"Birds over the Sea"
/painting, drawing/
Abolishment of art in the contemporary world is becoming a process establishing an absolute sequence of provocative actions resembling a condemnation of everything related to the very human existence. We are proposed to treat history, philosophy and religion as a vestige. In which case, preserving art seems equally inconsistent since it still embodies something integrate, the very reminder of a special and undivided unity of various spheres of being where the contemporary spirit of civilization feels utterly ill-at-ease. Art makes great demands on memory, making one strain all one’s senses and open one’s heart, for art sets high standards to memory’s depth as a comprehending measure of the apparent world.
You will agree that if “art” discarded this name, a demarcation line would be immediately drawn to clarify many things, since new forms of topical art, the arts of happening and extreme performance would stand a poor chance to replace the art of the old forms. It makes no more sense than science starting to pretend to be performing the functions of religion, or logistics those of philosophy. And should these substitutions come to pass, they would immediately detect unlawfulness and unfeasibility of such claims. All attempts and claims made by actionists to play the role of genuine artists in the contemporary world are no less ridiculous.
For many an age have we been living trying to follow all that is novel and avant-garde. Yet, as a great critic Peter Sloterdijk believes – and it is hard to disagree with him – that “the avant-garde art is a power to compel all members of a community to make decisions on proposals that come from the outside”. It looks that we are dependent on coercion, on search for new meanings and language constructions, since for some reason we believe that genuine art may exist only within conservative modern trends and only from them can it stem. Yet history offers us different examples showing that out of the spent trends emerge new forms of great and genuine art. And then it occurs to us that it would be good if such art did not demand a descriptive adjective “contemporary” to define itself, for it is perfect as it is. It is created regardless of laws dictated by time, though forever revealing its spirit.
It emerges from the substance of the spirit of the ancient and eternal art through the artistic transformation of thoughts, outlooks, forms generated by the contemporary life. It can be identified through the signs revealed in the serious attitude to intelligent foresight and to the understanding of personal responsibility the artist bears to the whole world, his uncompromising rejection of fashion, his aversion to obey non-artistic forces, his persistent compliance with the human standard while he acknowledges the order of values and feels at home there. Hence, the true calling of the artist is to develop a special sensitiveness to the surrounding world. `
Vladimir Zagorov is one of such masters. His works are well-known in St Petersburg. The exhibition “Birds over the Sea” held at the QvadraT Gallery presents a series of graphic art-pieces created at the Mediterranean seaside during his sojourn there. The pictures of the old maritime town are full of sunshine, the sea, they breathe with the warm air emanating from the seafront, boats and yachts rolling on the waves near jetties. Here crowds of people stroll, fish, cycle, and laugh. All these simple subjects are found in great abundance in works of many an artist. The thing is that every person is given to distinguish and render the multifarious world in his own way since every person sees it according to his ability.
The exhibition title itself suggests an image. Birds and the sea evoke images of amazing freedom, for it is in the nature of birds to conquer the two elements – the earth and heaven; and if it happens to be a seabird, it encompasses in its love of freedom not only the sky and the earth but also the sea. Seabirds are Mother Nature’s minions. It is Nature that endowed them with an amazing skill to fly, walk and swim. The sea engenders an image of infinity, timelessness and eternity. And what has Man to do with this divine grandeur? What has he got to boast of? In contrast to the perfect birds and the eternal sea, he, ashamed of his lot to forever remain imperfect, can do nothing but translate this grandeur to his canvas; an enraptured bird watcher, he can infect us with his delight when seeing birds on the wing, he can put to paint the sounds of their daring and sharp calls, the noise and power of the sea waves. As well as his own innermost involvement in the whole visible and invisible world. Desperately vying with Nature, he captures it by his artistic might, thus gaining a genuine future the birds and the sea, perfect as they are, can never dream of.
God would really be bored but for Man, who, likewise Him, may be touched, may be delighted, and may feel the idealness of the world surrounding him ever from his birth. Man can enact the substance of being that permeates everything with common living energy. And only a true artist – here it is of no importance whether he is a realist, or a double-dyed abstractionist or something else – can impress us by his knowledge of this miracle; thus, genuine art simply is and that’s all to it, it exists regardless of time and is forever the actual.
Olga Thomson