International Artists Promotion Group

HONORED ARTIST OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
THE EXHIBITOR OF THE SALON “ART CAPITAL” 2014 – 2015
THE BRONZE MEDAL OF THE SALON “ART CAPITAL” 2014

Whenever I am asked to write a few words about my work, I freeze over a sheet of blank paper. What can a person from my profession convey with words? Like any artist, I speak with the audience through material. The material through which I see and perceive the world. In that material in which I perceive the world as a phenomenon. My material is my language and outside this material, I have no voice.
•  I understand, of course, that the audience interested to hear about the thoughts of an artist, but these thoughts are already represented in his work as a recording made on canvas or sheet of paper. The peculiarity of this record is that it is visual, which is maximally materialized and easily accessible for interpretation. The honesty of an artist and the authenticity of his observations largely determine the value of his works. Authenticity also has a special aura – it absolutely defies imitation. With all the seemingly fancy traits of visual art, it is quite conservative in its basic principles – either you have something to say that is inherently substantial, or you are the seller of air. There are many sellers of air, I agree, but there have always been many of them and they are easily distinguished. In everyday life we ​​recognize lies easily, and the lies inserted into an artistic frame are just as noticeable. Lying is not art, it can only be a fake. One is as far from the other, as sunlight and the absence of it.

Mikhail Kocheshkov for the readers of the ”Russian Art & Paris”.

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The creativity of Mikhail Kocheshkov is simultaneously very modern and conservative. By itself, the appeal of an experienced artist to full-scale drawing with pencil may seem anachronistic, and at the same time is a hallmark of the time, when elementary components of descriptiveness take on new meaning. The acuteness of perception of a person living with the problems of the XXI century, gives the motives of familiar and previous generation artists, a special significance. Fragile features of posing models, acute vertical towering of a church over houses, shining wet roof amidst a sky of crossed wires – all as if in the original work of art, acquires additional meaning. Each detail seen by an artist’s loving glance is seen by the involved viewer as part of a piercingly beautiful and fragile creation.
• The artist believes that the drawing should be sustained by the combination of hard and soft. That which is from nature – sky, earth, grass, trees, clouds – cannot be hard. Hard things are the work of human hands. This does not mean, of course, that all created by man is bad. It’s just different. The small format – Mikhail Kocheshkov has many drawings the size of a book page – in some cases conveys a certain intimacy of the artist’s vision. To some extent, this assumption is valid. The composition of many of his landscapes again and again returns the gaze from the edges of the sheet towards the center, forcing the viewer to go not into breadth, but into depth: to pass, bending the head, under the branches of an old tree, to walk around a fence which runs almost the entire width of the sheet, to zigzag in an intricate maze of assorted outbuildings. You want to examine these landscapes for a long time, sometimes even catching yourself on what feels like “walking” in the interior of the sheet from a flatness turned into an infinite depth. This line in the interpretation of the landscape – to show the audience the originality and uniqueness of a particular fragment of the tiniest corner of a boundless world – intersects with the other – the desire to come to a global and inclusive image of the Earth through a particular motive. Famous russian artist Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin walked a similar path. The handwriting style of Mikhail Kocheshkov is totally different from this master’s handwriting, but comes close by the most philosophical position in the meaning of the artistic image.
• Upon looking at Mikhail Kocheshkov artworks, there is usually a sense of credibility of the nature, of its particular reliability. However, it is impossible not to see the serious compositional work of the artist. These qualities of his work, such as good taste and a subtle sense of composition, which is akin to professional hearing in music, are seen today as the main determinants. The same qualities that allow him to reliably but without naturalisticness, beautifully but without a salon taste, to draw, engrave, and paint watercolors, are seen as the key to further creative growth of the graphic artist.

by Vladimir Basmanov,
Honored Artist of the Russian Federation.

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Pictures in the text:
“Sulky day”  Etching,  (50 x 57 cm)

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“Early summer”  Acrylic on board, (46 x 72 cm)

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Graphics is the art of the very especial. Large art exhibitions arrange works by graphic artists in the farthest halls. Black and white image in most cases, small size, low-key plot – it is not considered to be for the mass audience. This may very well be the case, but then the natural question is, who is the viewer for graphic artists? Who is he and how is he different from the rest? The answer to this question should be logically found in the nature of graphic art, which is based on black and white constructions of compositions. Is the black and white model of the world around its simplification? From aesthetic perspectives – yes, definitely. However, art operates not only by form, but also by content. To be more specific – content that bears meaning. The record of content in the form of an abstract model – be it mathematics or philosophy – is familiar enough for us and does not raise thoughts about simplification. Abstract model reveals meaning. This in particular, and in many ways, is the focus of graphic art.
• For the viewer, familiarity with the artist begins with a simple question – what is the artist interested in, in the first place. Looking at the works of Mikhail Kocheshkov, answering this question is not too difficult – existence as such. Let’s look at a small etching “Still life with a chair”. According to the genre characteristics, this is still life in an interior. Objects united in a freely fragmented composition are easily replaceable – their internal communication is not formalized. The point is not what these objects are designed for, but that they exist. The artist seeks an answer to the question: what does it mean to exists? What is existence? In the field of attention is not a special case of the life of a subject (what is the existent?), but rather a more fundamental question – what does it mean for the existent to exist? Notice the main intonation that literally permeates the entire composition. This intonation is surprise. Equally clearly, this motif sounds in the artist’s landscape works (“In the fields”, in the paintings “The Wall, lighted by the sun”, “Light autumn”). The eternal human thirst – to understand and comprehend existence as a whole, as a theme in art is rare. This topic is complicated due to the lack of an explicit and obvious object for an image. Therefore, it seems logical that the artist desires to transcend the limits of a formal plot, to avoid plot, to abandon plot completely. The rejection of one of the tools (plot), is compensated, and often successfully replaced, by active work with another tool – angle of vision: panorama, which Mikhail Kocheshkov uses masterfully, even in such an unexpected genre as interior still life (“In the studio”); fragmentation (“Sheds under snow”, “Suzdal motive”); low horizon, typical of monumental painting (“Murom”, “Summer clouds”). An unexpected viewpoint, as in a new, unfamiliar glance at the space in which existence takes place – is the plot of many works.
• Society persistently reduces the role of the artist to a “decorator” of interiors. This is how it always has been and our time is no exception. The slogan – “make beauty for us” is formulated by a crowd, but the artist fits poorly into a crowd. He has different life-space. In the life-space of artist Mikhail Kocheshkov, there is more existence than objects. For the understanding of objects, mankind has accumulated a huge toolkit – from the microscope to the Mars rover. For the comprehension of existence, there are no instruments other than those given to each of us by God. In this sense, the artist Mikhail Kocheshkov and viewers of his artworks are in equal conditions. Most of the work of the artist – to see, feel, understand – is available to every viewer. The only difference is that the artist spends much more time on this. Usually an entire lifetime. ©

by Russian Art & Paris

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Picture in the text:
“In the fields” Etching,  (42 x 65 cm)

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“Still life with a chair”  Etching. (21 x 17 cm)

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Mikhail Kocheshkov is a graphic artist, and most significant to him is the drawing. The emerging principles of his art are becoming more convincingly and distinctly evident in drawing. Here is a handwriting style of individuality, here his artistic position is more fully reflected. Mikhail Kocheshkov operates freely with planes, with space. He does not conceal his desire to direct our view. It is here that he is committed to accuracy, to emotional accuracy. He leads us through the landscape in a way that, according to his calculation, will lead us to the comprehension of the essence of this particular motif, lead us to empathize with him, with the artist.

V. Basmanov, artist

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Mikhail Kocheshkov was born in Ivanovo, in 1958. He recieved his professional education in Ivanovo State Art College (1977) and the Moscow State Academic Art Institute named after Vasiliy Surikov (1987). Mikhail Kocheshkov is a member of the Artists’ Union of Russia since 1990. Since 2010 he is the Honored Artist of the Russian Federation. Mikhail Kocheshkov lives and works in Vladimir.

The artworks of Mikhail Kocheshkov – etching and graphic art are in the collections of museums: Ivanovo State Art Museum; Ryazan State Art Museum; Vladimir-Suzdal Museum Reserve.

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EXHIBITIONS

Etchings by Mikhail Kocheshkov in the exhibition of the Salon “Art Capital” 2015, (Paris).

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Etchings by Mikhail Kocheshkov in the exhibition of the Salon “Art en Capital” 2014, (Paris). The BRONZE MEDAL 2014

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Russian spelling: Художник Михаил Кочешков, (Владимир)

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