International Artists Promotion Group

THE EXHIBITOR OF THE SALON “d’ART CONTEMPOREIN” MONTREUX 2014

Once, as a child my father took me to an art exhibition. Unlike reproductions, these paintings were alive – there were visible layers of paint and they attracted me to them so much that I wanted to touch the painting with my hands. I really wanted to draw at least one such real painting. I began to study painting, and over the years realized that there are a lot of good paintings; in order to not get lost in such diversity, it is necessary to have not only my own handwriting, but also my own worldview. The work of an artist is to constantly learn, to search and experiment. A true artist should be recognized even without his signature on a canvas; with regard to painting, it needs to bring joy to the audience and evoke a bright emotions. One would agree that there is more than enough grayness and dullness in this world…

Aleksandr Pavlovets for the readers of the ”Russian Art & Paris”.

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It is not difficult to imagine the poetics of a moment, when Ms. Struyskaya stared with a vague and mysterious glance from the insightful portrait of artist Fedor Rokotov of the 18th century, upon an equally discerning poet of the 20th century, Nikolai Zabolotsky. Fascinated by the image of Struyskaya, Zabolotsky wrote a poetic masterpiece “Portrait”, in which “out of the darkness of the past …” not just a beautiful Russian court woman, but all the beautiful women of the world embodied in painting appeared before the poet.
•  Perhaps this feminine – artistic! – charm of the “darkness of the past” pushed Aleksandr Pavlovets to the interpretation of well-known female images and the creation of a series of elegant paraphrases, starting with the sculptural portrait Nefertiti to “The Swan Princess” of Vrubel. The elegance of his works are sometimes disturbing, even frightening; and sometimes playful, flirtatious. At the same time it is perceived as a reliable aesthetic bridge thrown between the past and the present, leading to the worship of the divine beauty of Women and Painting.
•  The organization of art-pictorial space almost certainly contains an element of mysterious theatricality. Being fluent in the art of composition, having almost “perfect pitch” to the tonal nuances of color, the artist multiplied the possibilities of his talent. As a result – the solid correctness of creative interpretations and borrowing, intended to convince the audience of the need for a grateful modern look upon the classics, and perhaps to intensify the interest of a contemporary viewer to the values ​​of the past.
• Seduced by the female images of the great masters of the past, artist Aleksandr Pavlovets looks with caution and even a certain aloofness at the contemporaries portrayed by him. For the artist they are just charming, seductive models from which to pull away, creating images of “familiar strangers”; beyond them there is only “darkness of modernity”, which may be void, where the present has no potency to become meaningful “onetime”… The artist manages to play along with nature, gently flattering her and simultaneously sadly grinning. Alas, the master does not find the proper depth in the women portrayed, recognizing that “his own Struyskuyu” has not been created yet.
•  Habitually we associate woman with a flower, but in his “painting of bouquets” Pavlovets comes from the opposite: his beautiful flowers evoke sincere, almost erotic excitement, because the artist admires them no less than the images of women in classical painting, and creates them with the predilection of a painter-lover. Chardin’s thoroughness emanates from the bouquet of lilac, impressionistic vibrations come from the still life with small carnations, Rembrandt’s golden glow of autumn radiates his white chrysanthemums. Collected in a series, these paintings are fragrant with an extravaganza of color and provoke the viewer to remember the variety of exciting aromas.
•  “Peasant” still life are painted by the artist without a hint of force against nature: with a relaxed and joyful love. Tense and strictly balanced chiaroscuro contrasts, and color harmonies force us to remember the dignity of still life paintings by de Zurbarán and Chardin. The fruits of the earth in Pavlovian’s artworks are weighty and life-affirming – like in the paintings of Flanders in the 17th century. However, in his still lifes – the fruits of the rich and disturbing earth, are the fruits of Ukraine.
•  To the sophisticated traveler, Ukrainian city landscape motifs seem sad and not always attractive. The painter Aleksandr Pavlovets can poeticize the heavy with spring moisture, unfussy, stooping in the wind, patio of Dnepropetrovsk. He can breathe a pulse into the classically boring prospect of an autumn street with a cathedral steaming in the fog, with a shimmering gilded dome. He can convince the viewer in the Baroque freshness of a pseudo-baroque motif of the historic part of the city. Finally, he can evoke from the viewer a sense of nostalgia, born by the natural pull of a citizen to the aesthetics of not only the parade architecture, but also the shaded courtyard provincial architecture.
•  And always, in every motif, there is a search for a silent narrative of the walls about something precious that connects the human with the frightening and at the same time attractive urban environment.
•  Not burdened by moralization, the artwork of Aleksandr Pavlovets returns us to a righteous realism, a majestic effect which still expands upon us the art classics. The realistic artworks of our contemporaries, like the of works of Aleksandr Pavlovets indicate that the possibilities of realism are far from exhausted. In art, the realistic creation of the world of images and the reflection of the “world” of feelings are the spiritual and aesthetic future of mankind.

by Vitaly Starchenko,
Winner of the literary awards of Ivan Sokulsky and Pavlo Tychina, art critic.

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Pictures in the text (from above):
“Still life with candlestick”  Oil on canvas. (50 x 70 cm); “Still life with a bottle”  Oil on canvas. (55 x 70 cm).

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“Joker” Oil on Canvas. (90 x 80 cm)

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To give a definition of artistic taste is not easy. It’s not so much for the lack of a tuning fork as in their abundance. Every single historical epoch had its tuning fork, and sometimes more than one. Our time is not an exception – there are plenty of tuning forks, and the loudest one is not necessarily the most accurate. The tuning fork of the artistic taste of contemporary painter Aleksandr Pavlovets sounds restrained, sometimes very quiet, but it is worth listening to. In the soft music of his works, there are very many precise notes.
• In delineating the space of the artistic images of Aleksandr Pavlovets, in finding a designation for this space, the simple word “harmony” seems natural, but not sufficient. An aura of tranquility in still life is replaced by an aura of tense silence in the portraits of women. An aura of coloristic hues interweaves with an aura of light and shadow. Compositional structures are distinct and laconic. The motions of live characters are almost always completed. The openness of female images is deceptive, their lips are tightly sealed. Harmony of rest? The harmony of silence? Yes, probably, but still something more.
•  How can the mystery of Danae capture the contemporary artist, a mature man of the twenty-first century? The charm of an ancient myth? But it has been retold a thousand times and implemented in hundreds of paintings. Interest in ancient Greek history? But the painting “Danae” by Aleksandr Pavlovets is devoid of any historical attributes, his Danae is timeless. Perhaps most importantly, it is the presence of the mystery itself, a mystery of the divine in the earth. The compositional decision of the artist is temperamental and sudden, the main character of the painting is made to be not Danae, but Zeus. No, it’s not just about the shimmering of verticals and gold color scheme (Zeus came to Danae in the form of a shower of gold). We look upon Danae through the eyes of Zeus, on canvas is his emotional order, his invisible presence. He is located at the point from which the viewer sees Danae. The sharply-modern interpretation of the plot is psychologically daring, and no less daring is the painting itself, almost fresco-like by its nature. The composition arranges the image, and the image revealing the meaning. Impeccable graphic slendernessof a sophisticated foreshortening of the female figure, is the only classical element of this artwork. Everything else is art of our time.
•  The painting of Aleksandr Pavlovets is a complex and unhurried artistic search within a relatively small aesthetic field. At the same time, the problems disclosed in such search are exceptionally relevant. As an example – the light and shadow is a base of construction of still-life by this artist, but simultaneously, his a decisive rejection of light and shadow in the figurative compositions leaves an open question – why? It is obvious that the basis of this difference is the different nature of the material world and the spiritual world. However, is this difference sufficient to create two separate painting aesthetics in a single artistic space? To answer this question is not easy and it is almost impossible to answer theoretically. Of value is only answer received on the canvas. The significance of an answer to this and similar questions will be confirmed (or not confirmed) in the works of other artists. The mechanism of artistic search in the visual arts functions slowly, but it has been working without any serious glitches and errors for centuries and no other mechanism is available for artists today. The distance traversed by Aleksandr Pavlovets along this road is considerable and the result is dozens of excellent fine art works. All of those are before the eyes of viewers. However, the road remains the same, with questions which, besides the artist himself, no one can answer.  ©

by Russian Art & Paris

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Pictures in the text (from above): “Autumn”  Oil on canvas. (60 x 75 cm)

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“Danae” Oil on Canvas. (65 x 110 cm)

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Aleksandr Pavlovets, a painter and graphic artist, was born in 1954 in Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine). After graduating from the Art school he continued his education in State Dnepropetrovsk University (1980). Since 1994, he has participated in international art exhibitions and competitions. Aleksandr Pavlovets lives and works in Dnepropetrovsk.

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Russian spelling: Художник Александр Павловец, (Днепропетровск)
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