Artist Vitaly Gubarev, (Protvino)

HONORED ARTIST OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
THE EXHIBITOR OF THE SALON “ART CAPITAL” 2013 – 2015
THE BRONZE MEDAL OF THE SALON “ART CAPITAL” 2015

Our earthly life is a very short episode, and in eternity it is a fleeting moment only. To embody graphically an amazing flow of life which cannot be expressed in words – it is both joy and anguish. To depict an enormous space on a small sheet of paper, it takes a lot of energy. But this artistic energy returns graciously to the art viewer. In this, I see the meaning of creativity of any artist working in contemporary visual art.

Vitaly Gubarev for the readers of the ”Russian Art & Paris”.

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The art of Vitaly Gubarev is expressive and emotional. It mirrors the development of Russian graphic arts at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. The poetic paintings created by Vitaly Gubarev reflect the worldview of the best part of a generation to which he belongs. Up to now this generation is socially oriented. It took shape in the recent decades of the past century in the atmosphere of enthusiasm of the national gravures and great popularity of this art form in Russia. The expertise, skill, art and moral consistency of works are number one amongst the priorities in the Vitaly Gubarev oeuvre. The artist created a variety of epic and large-scale image of Russia together with the lyrical and poetical paintings. He sang of his homeland in them and pinpointed the topical issues of the public morals at all times. One of the priority themes in his oeuvre is the idea of a linkage between humanity and the world, and humanity’s moral responsibility. In such paintings, there is a warning to a spectator, the modern time, an epoch of moral conglomerate combining idealism, on one hand, and cynicism, on the other. The romantic ideals of his youth compel the already experienced and has-been artist take in hand this theme once again, search and resonate with the hearts of spectators. Vitaly Gubarev is a man of apparent value in the Russian graphic arts. He is a brilliant master devoted to the arts and he is independent and principled.
• The narration of Vitaly Gubarev’s creative career could result in a real novel about the fate of an artist who devoted himself to the service of the arts. The activity of a master of such skill level and world outlook is worth a separate big talk and study of his methods of work.
• The origins of the worldview of each and every human being are in his biography, in the events of years of his childhood in any way influencing shaping his views, the concept of good and evil, as well as upon the eternal mystery of interaction of a human being and the nature. Such an event for Vitaly Gubarev was his experience during the war and after war time in Uzbekistan as a child, his early self-reliance and independent thinking. All this has become the strongest motivation for studying and achieving professionalism and has developed his diligence, and strengthened his will.
• The epic images of Russia formed in the Vitaly Gubarev’s work gradually through dozens of remarkable drawings of the Russian meadows, the newly ploughed fields and the vastness of the native Grater Moscow Area. These drawings arose asa result of the long years and painstaking work over the series of urban and rural sceneries. To create them it took Vitaly Gubarev long years of his work. The understanding of a historical fate of Russia was lined up from one painting to another. His tours around the provincial towns, villages and rural areas of the Russian North, the Volga region and the Greater Moscow Area helped him a lot to understand it. At home, in his workshop, he understood how to achieve the maximum expression of his painting in the absent of the subject and additional details. The author’s life experience and wisdom came to him with the years entirely comply with the word picture in such drawings as «A Storm is Brewing» (1994), «The Wheats are Being Sown», -Before the Storm» (1996), «The Beginning of the Storm», «The Cloudy Day» (2001), «The First Snow» (2002), «A Field Under Wheat», «Night Field» (2003). A calm stateliness of the following drawings translates to a spectator the artist’s reflection of eternity and permanency of all in «Above theVanity» (1976), «A Field is Being Come into Ear», «The Holy Lake. The Solovetsky Islands» and «The Zayatsky Island. The Solovetsky Islands» (1998). Second place, a motive of love to the bleak Northern soil and to homeland is being evolved in these drawings. One can talk in different languages about the beauty and grandeur of the homeland and about the love to the homeland. Here, Vitaly Gubarev found its own language that is heartfelt and very expressive. It is no mere chance, his work was repeatedly awarded with the blue ribbons by the Russian Academy of Arts, Artist’s Union of Russia and a variety of other governmental and social structures.
• There are many drawings pencil amongst the Vitaly Gubarev’s best paintings. The drawing artist’s handicraft came to him as early as in his young years and yet he has been honing his skill throughout his life. Vitaliy draws at all times and in all places. He created a big collection of the easel drawings in coloured pencil that deserve attention of the museum staff as per their quality and art expressiveness. In these drawings, both the talent and high level of skill, and experience are expressed as well.
• The graphic signature of Vitaly Gubarev is recognized as per his soft narrative intonation, as per his attentive attitude to the line, as per black and white stain, as per original rhythm that has something in common with the rhythms of the ancient Russian towns. The graphic structure of his paintings is narrative. In etching, he assigns a respectful part to the picturesque properties of aquatint giving various texture effects and helping to transfer the atmospheric colour in which the picture has been sunk. Vitaly Gubarev does like a classic etched stroke, the velvety touch of the line that is engraved in the dry-point techniques. The realistic manner in which he works all his life allowed him to achieve a high expression and brilliant skill. These qualifications put Vitaly Gubarev forward into the staff of the most interesting Russian graphic artists who are independent and picturesque in their progress.
• Vitaly Gubarev’s engravings reveal his gift as a painter. He perceives the black and white colour graphically and in tonal shades. Apparently, a frequent address to the coloured etching and to the complicated process of gravure production with the help of several plates is connected with his perception. All his life Vitaly Gubarev does painting as well. He paints in acryl, tempera and water colour. He focuses on this art form extensively over the last years.
• All his life Vitaly Gubarev is seeking to get an idea of the harmony of the relationship between a human being and the nature across all his contemporaries. Yury Baturin, the pilot cosmonaut of Russia, wrote from Zvezdnyi Gorodok as follows: «After a cosmonaut returning from his flight his feelings and sensations are flared up. He begins to see and notice all objects that he habitually passed by before without turning his head, especially in the nature. I saw from a new angle the beauty of common trees, rivulets and clouds on the sky after my returning from the outer space on Earth in 1998.1 saw all that objects just so how Vitaly Gubarev painted them in his pictures as «The Summer. The Protva Rivulet», «The Autumn», and etc… I have travelled around the small Russian provincial towns and common villages for several years where my antecedents lived in starting from XVIII to XX centuries. Certainly, I’m taking photograph… However, I have felt «the aura of that life» viewing only the Gubarev’s works such as «The Wintry Evening», «The Peal of Bells», «Winter», «The White Snow» and «The Rest in the Village» . These works helped me to my best understanding and feeling of those people and that life that I want to describe in my book». Really, it is rather high appraisal and one can be proud of it.

by Tatyana Boitsova,
Honored Artist of the Russian Federation,
member of the Union of Artists of the Russian Federation, art critic.

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Pictures in the text (from above):
“High water. Protva” Etching. (30 x 37 cm); “Winter way” Etching. (21 x 26 cm).

“At Protva” Etching. (14 x 18 cm)

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The artist Vitaly Gubarev has long been known. A great graphic artist, a master of etching, a fine lyricist – epithets which no one disputes, and yet, speaking about the art of this master is not so easy. The thematic range of this artist is reserved and even austere. The number of plots in his works is not too large. Add to that the natural asceticism of the techniques in etching, and it begs the question – what is the focus of the art of V.Gubarev? In what art-field does he lead his creative exploration? Let’s try to understand.
• We have before us two landscapes – “Blooming meadow” and “Cornfield”. The most close-up view and a wide panorama. Space on these sheets is strictly structured and is emphasized with several apparent tonal accents. This space, decorative and almost flat in the first case, and expanded to maximum depth in the second case, is the main character in the works. However, space can never be empty, it is always filled with something. Here we come to the most important – to the fringe beyond which art begins. A description of the space in etchings of Vitaly Gubarev is not difficult to give at first sight of these sheets – living. Living space filled with the breath of wind and the smell of grass, is vibrant and changeable. How, by what means, does the artist create this effect?
• Pay attention to the filigree tone design, clearly visible in the composition “Cornfield”. In addition to the major tonal accents, the development of light spots of the second row literally leads the gaze of viewers through the waves of the shifting field. This is not just a tonal richness, but also an extremely difficult tonal arrangement illustrating the meaning of the work – the endless movement of living eared fields. No less interesting is the compositional solution of the foreground in etching “Blooming meadow”. The vibration of the warm afternoon air, the movement of grass, the nearly palpable smell of summer – all of this is in the construction of complex, sibling tonal rhythms of this magnificent sheet.
• The stylistic horizon of V. Gubareva is quite wide – from the classical form of “Memories” or “Winter way” to the emotionally explosive “Above the vanity”. Today, the artist is clearly on top of his skill and actively working, so we should not rush with generalizing characteristics of works by this master. Viewers first and foremost need works of art, and not grades, of the fine artist Vitaly Gubarev. ©

by Russian Art & Paris

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Pictures in the text: “Comfield” Etching. (29 x 42 cm)

“Suspension bridge” Etching. (25 x 27 cm)

Vitaly Gubarev, a graphic artist and painter, was born in 1936 in Samarkand (Uzbekistan). After graduating from the Tashkent Republican Art College (1958) he continued his art education in Moscow. He graduated from the Moscow Higher School of Industrial Art (former Stroganovskoye) in 1964. Graphic-artist Vitaly Gubarev is a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR (1971). Honored Artist of the Russian Federation (1994). Diploma of the Russian Academy of Arts (2005). Chairman of the section of graphic-artists of the Moscow regional branch of the Union of Artists of Russia (2008). Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, Vitaly Gubarev awarded the Medal of the Order “For Services to the Fatherland, II degree” (2011). Personal art exhibition in the Palace of Nations (UN) in Geneva (2012).

The works of Vitaly Gubarev – etching and graphic art are in the collections of museums: The State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow); the Penza State Art Gallery named after K.A.Savitskiy; the Perm State Museum; the Pavlodar State Art Museum; the Serpukhov History and Art Museum; the Art Gallery of the Smolensk State Museum.

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