The exhibition of the artist Rinat Sharafutdinov

IN QUEST OF THE ETERNAL HARMONY

«A piece of art is a spot of the universe seen through the prism of the unique temperament» Émile Zola

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Rinat Sharafutdinov is a gifted and extraordinary artist with his own artistic system of coordinates and a singular frame of vision, reflection and feeling based on «the meditation in colors». On his canvases he calculates everything to the millimeter: the expressiveness of lines and forms, the arrangement of space through color, the subtle interaction of all pictorial elements as a unique and independent entity. His creative assets are indicative of a wide range of the artistic palette – pictorial art, graphic art and monumental-decorative art.
In the pictorial art domain the painter is prolific in the genres of landscape, still life, portrait and narrative paintings. While expanding the borders of the traditional chamber genres, he creates his own pictorial space where the color and form appear as the absolute aesthetic category and the artist reveals his unique image-bearing world in its full diversity. The characteristic feature of his pictorial temperament is the contemplation of the world. Through the vanity of everyday life the artist can carefully scrutinize the details of his environment. During his plain air sessions he enjoys drawing sketches that bear «the stamp of excessive excitement», and sometimes supply preliminary material for creating serious, large-format works. This is where the author achieves the intensity of his first feelings. Admiring the mundane beauty, the diversity of natural forms, he takes time to transfer his impressions onto the canvas, filling the pictorial space with his philosophic attitude to life and his apprehension of its transient nature as compared to the eternity of the mundane existence.
The master’s logic is based not only on the rigid adherence to the artistic principles but also on incorporating his creative imagination into the process of painting. His landscapes are absolutely reasonable with their village cottages, domestic animals, groups of agricultural workers, holiday makers, females bathing in the river, painters with easels («Evening. Verhneuralsk suburbs», 2012; «Warm autumn», 2013; «View of the Svyato-Nikolsky cathedral» 2015, and others). The subtlety of the poetic intonation is inspired by simple details of everyday routine and this narrative manner has a charm of its own. The artist resorts to this paraphernalia in order to fully express the harmony of being, and the subtle coloring provokes certain emotions in the viewers. All this enhances the impression of the universal and monumental nature of his paintings. The pastorale of many narrative motifs makes the impression that the artist lives under a different sky, perceives the world through different eyes, and therefore creates paintings unparalleled in their emotional impact and beauty and therefore turns the dream of «the life steam of happiness» into pictorial reality.
The continuous devotion of the master to landscape is not accidental as the possibility of self-expression in this genre is high. Depending on the emotional dominant the pictorial language and the coloring texture there appears an explicit sculptural brush stroke accumulating the energy of motion, bold dynamic rhythms, the expression of the local color. Natural forms turn into expressive volumes of mundane matter and literally through several brush strokes there appears the effect of a sun ray breaking through the clouds, the foliage trembling in the wind, the extravaganza of light and shadow. «Clouds», 2014; «Rain over the mountain», 2015; «Rainbow», 2016 and others). The author can impart a new content into the chosen motif that reflects his «inner ego». The secret of this «newness» is in his attitude to the natural form as a constantly changing reality, in his aspiration to alter the visual perception through his own pictorial feeling.
City landscape, warm and light, occupies a prominent place in the artist’s work. These nooks of the old city with resident-friendly architecture are peaceful and comfortable. The compositions imply the imperative development of a certain plot line – the lovers’ meeting, the anticipation of a meeting with a bouquet of flowers, walking a dog («The Provinces», 2006; «Magnitogorsk. Old yard», 2015; «Lilac in blossom», 2015; «Winter evening in the city 2015, and others). Within the framework of the city landscape genre there are works whose space is adjusted to different laws of compositional construction. The author focuses on the geometry of color contrasts, rhythm and the conventionality of architectural forms: textural planes of the walls, luminous quadrangles of the windows. But even this essential city structure suggests the mandatory presence of a human being as a certain countdown point in the apprehension of the author’s concept. (Diptych: «Outskirts», «Walking the doggie». 2016).
The author is continuing his work in the decorative stylization domain, seeking the expressive and laconic form in the still-life genre. In order to achieve plastic clarity the author transforms the world of outward things turning it into a picturesque entity that is governed by the color and linear rhythms of the composition, living the life of harmony and beauty. («Blue room», 2008; «Bouquet for ballerina», 2015 and others).
His talent is most vividly manifest in creating complex and interesting compositions in the monumental art. One of the most impressive works in the Southern Urals is an enormous size mosaics «Motion» on the façade of the Ice palace. The artist managed to accurately express rhythm and plastic dynamics. It became areal embellishment of the city. One of the recent works is the wall painting «Theatre» in the interior of the restaurant «Our all». It is a multi-figure composition in the interior of the auditorium with fancy dress characters of the second part of the nineteenth century (over 160 portraits of most prominent public figures in the city including the portrait of the author himself).
Considering a wide range of interests the development of the master’s creative evolution is not devoid of integrity and depth. The spot of the universe created in its overwhelming diversity, «seen through the prism of the artist’s temperament» is really abundant in emotions and distinguished by the sincerity of feelings and the original perception of the beauty of the world.

by Marina ABRAMOVA,
The chief curator of the Magnitogorsk City Gallery, art critic,
member of the Union of Artists of the Russian Federation.

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1. The exhibition of the artist Rinat Sharafutdinov