International Artists Promotion Group

THE EXHIBITOR OF THE SALON “ART EN CAPITAL” 2012 – 2014

Every time when starting a new artwork, trying to get a feel for it, I listen very carefully to how the painting may sound, what kind of sounds and what kind of instruments sound in my image, which melody corresponds to one or another image. It might just be the sound of rain on the roof of an aged wooden house, the singing of birds in the spring forest, the sound of the ocean’s surf. Sometimes it is an entire symphony by an unrecognized author, sometimes bits of jazz improvisation, only heard once; it sometimes happens that the sounds of the bustling city combine in a barely tangible harmony… For me, shape and color are always the musical analogy. The rhythm of strokes, the rhythm of movements by the palette knife when applying a layer of paint to the canvas – is a genuinely important component that determines whether the work will be created or not. Hence I always try to write the canvas in one breath, while the rhythm is still held, especially for each painting.

In order to understand the relation of the color, I first imagine the world in black and white. And only when the canvas is lined in black over white, color bursts forth, filling the space, engraved in black ink. This is a little creation of the world.

Since I can remember, even at the age of three, I was able to suddenly stop on the street in amazement, seeing how the sun is intricately tangled in the branches of a tree or how the roof of a house shines, reflected in the puddles. Precisely these experiences come up now in the moments of writing my artworks, building their emotional aesthetics. It is this eternal sense of a lost paradise, a sharp desire to reunite the past with the present and the future, to make this world a little more comfortable for the soul, to reconcile man with reality, and is the basis of my creative work.
.
Alena Filippova-Kargalskaya for the readers of the ”Russian Art & Paris”.

.

.
.
FROM ARBAT STREET TO SAINT-TROPEZ

“It was a strange character. Almost contemplative.
This inertia, however, concealed crystal-clear energy.”

“Villa Amalia” by Pascal Quignard                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       .

Taking a glimpse at the series of paintings by Alena Filippova-Kargalskaya where waterfront landscapes and flower still lifes are predominant, one can make a hasty and faulty judgment: she is a young artist brought up in the traditions of modern polystylism. In fact Alena Filippova-Kargalskaya is a mature master. First she studied music and humanities, and then at the age of thirty, passionate about painting, she came to the Moscow Academy of Slavic Culture and enrolled in the studio of Vladimir Petrov-Kirillov.
•  Professional art school is seen in the high level of technique – in distinct, well-thought plots and style of the artistic compositions; in precise characteristics of color masses; in wide and confident paint strokes laid with a brush or knife. She works successfully in chamber genres – landscape, still life. The artist’s still life paintings are always staged and almost all of them are encompassed within a square – “Easter Still Life”, “Still life with Daffodils”. The square is the favorite shape of Russian vanguard artists, for example, Burlyuk and Malevich. As a matter of fact, painters use this shape not often as it is too complicated for classical compositional constructions. In Filippova-Kargalskaya’s paintings the square unites all still life elements in a whole harmonious image. Although her motives are often conventional, she seeks a subtle poetic plot. Such plot includes numerous reflections: about the color, tissues, backgrounds, as well as about the scenery seen from the window. Artist’s artworks are full of not only visual experience but also emotional feelings originated by music and lyrical images. This is a very remarkable feature of her bright artistic talent.
•  Composed works deserve a separate talk. Early paintings were devoted to the town of her childhood – short open-hearted stories about the time and herself. The internal concentration of the character in “Coffemania” reveals the painter’s interest in the human being. The picture’s character seems to have come out of Pascal Quignard’s novel. Extraordinarily picturesque light effect of the reflected evening sun, so typical of Moscow, works as a plot of this wonderful genre painting.
•  An important part of Filippova-Kargalskaya’s art is landscapes picturing modest Moscow views. They reveal excited attachment of the native of Moscow towards the beloved homeland. Motives of the admirable “provincial” capital of the twentieth century, with aged urban aesthetics, are especially dear to Alena’s heart. “Summer in Town” is an excellent example of such pictures. Probably one of the best paintings by Filippova-Kargalskaya is “The Two” from the “Kitay-Gorod Lanes” series. Almost square, sparing of colour, enchanting with sincerity. Nothing superfluous, a simple motive, but its lyrical constituent makes this painting remarkable.
•  Painting landscapes the artist doesn’t hide her love for the art of Vincent Van Gogh and artists of post-impressionism. In the work named “Factory” Alena unusually uses her favorite artistic trick – underpainting with red cinnabar. Light blue, asure and dark blue thick strokes laid with a knife in the red background unexpectedly transform the deep shades of the water and sky into a exceptional coloristic energy. You could find it in all subsequent paintings including a series of appealing landscapes picturing the vacation in the vicinity of Saint-Tropez in 2010 and Saint Mandrier in 2011. Another facet of Alena’s art is water motives. A peculiar veil in these landscapes unites all elements. It includes the joy of colors lighting floating clouds and water, the soft sheen of buildings reflected in the water. The plots are recognizable and rich for associations. Found compositions are like the art of illusion. By eliminating superfluous details and generalizing spatial plans, the artist treats the landscape in such a way that the essence of the created art image comes to light.
•  The most remarkable thing about Alena’s landscapes where all objects are static probably is that they are painted for contemplation. Emotional contemplative basis linked to clear and strict artistic form brings forth peculiarity and profoundness of Alena Filippova-Kargalskaya’s art. It is not just painting but a force that was constrained for a long time and then broke loose. The very technique of painting with a knife and pure paint, saturating the work with intensified color, relief painting as well as piercing red underpainting endow the coloring of her painting with powerful energy.
•  Open-hearted and nontrivial, Alena Filippova-Kargalskaya’s art can be read as some visual diary of a sensitive and observant artist.

by Valentina Chernova, art critic,
member of the Union of Artists of the Russian Federation..
.
.

“Bonsoir, Vincent!”  Oil on Canvas. (90 x 70 cm) .

.

With the creative work of the artist Alena Filippova-Kargalskaya I am familiar from the very beginning. She became an artist rapidly, having worked to master the technology of painting within a few years. Others would finish academies and institutes, and forever live within the framework of the school where they were taught. Alena’s situation is different. Fate brought her to fine art during adulthood, when youthful energy and life experience met so well and intertwined. But the main thing is that the author has a gift from above, and this is wonderful that it manifested itself. Alena Filippova-Kargalskaya has her own style, her own calligraphy. Her work is poetic, with an intricate mood and philosophically unobtrusive.

Vladimir Paroshin, the artist

.

Alena Filippova-Kargalskaya was born in 1964, lives and works in Moscow.  She graduated from the Moscow State Institute of Culture (1987). Filippova-Kargalskaya studied painting in the art studio of the Professor of the Academy of Slavic Culture Vladimir Petrov-Kirillov. 

.

.

EXHIBITIONS

Painting by A. Filippova-Kargalskaya in the exhibition of the Salon “Art en Capital” 2014. Paris. Painting “Angel in the crown of thorns” received “Prix Paul Lassauzé″ award.

.

Painting by A. Filippova-Kargalskaya in the exhibition of the Salon “Art en Capital” 2013.  Paris

.

Painting by A. Filippova-Kargalskaya in the exhibition of the Salon “Art en Capital” 2012.  Paris

.

.

.

.

.

Russian spelling: Художник Алёна Филиппова-Каргальская, (Москва)

.

.

.

.