"Inner circle". Exhibition of works by Dmitry Ikonnikov

The Russian Academy of Arts presents an exhibition of works by the corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts Dmitry Ikonnikov (1952-2019) "Inner Circle". The large-scale exhibition presents more than 70 graphic works and several canvases from the collection of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, collections of the author’s family and private collectors. The exhibition is organized for the 70th anniversary of the artist’s birth, which will be celebrated early next year.

Dmitry Ikonnikov has long established himself as a strong and independent master, whose author’s handwriting and his own view of the world cannot be confused with any other. The theme that unites the works of Ikonnikov, presented at the exhibition at the MVK RAKh, can be defined as the "inner circle". The master writes mainly his own "environment", his world: his home and his family members, including his beloved cat. And the space in his things is more often only "close": the interiors of an apartment and a house on the Black Sea coast, where the artist has a rest with his family. Among the works of Ikonnikov there are several landscapes, but they are also from the immediate environment: a view of the outside world from your own balcony and quite ordinary, but, what is important, again your “near” courtyard. Landscapes stand apart, the embodiment of a kind of "imaginary travels" of the artist - views of certain cities,vaguely reminiscent of Venice with its canals and humpbacked bridges, then France with its Gothic cathedrals towering over the city roofs, then Spain with huge castles and temples hanging over bridges and water streams. In a word, we are talking about works that, at first glance, are intimate both in theme and in genre - still lifes, interiors, intimate landscapes and “landscapes of imaginations”. And in terms of technique - an artist, faithful to his education as a graphic artist, works exclusively on paper. However, the language somehow does not turn out to call his compositions chamber graphics. First, Ikonnikov writes on large-format paper sheets stretched over tablets. Secondly, his favorite gouache on large color planes, which he prefers, seems to be losing its specificity: instead of covering layers, there are translucent, almost glazed surfaces,and even with a varied "breathing" texture, reminiscent of the natural unevenness of a plastered wall. As a result, before us - as if fragments of paintings. Here we come to the most important quality of Ikonnikov’s works, which does not even allow us to approach his latest works as works of chamber art, namely, his ability to subordinate the solution to a single compositional task, which guarantees the integrity, and therefore the monumentality of the composition. It is very likely that this property arose as a result of the fact that the artist began to work professionally in the monumental workshop of an art combine. Experience in print graphics was also very important for Ikonnikov, in particular, work in a poster and in book illustration. Almost all of the artist’s works, which are self-sufficient in terms of composition, are extremely accurate in details.You can even say that he is a master of detail - thanks to the heightened attention and special "tasty" attitude to each of them. This side of talent brings Dmitry closer to the old masters, who had a tendency to give any, the most ordinary and prosaic subject, the function of a sign, turn it into a hidden symbol, and at the same time not destroy its special aura - as they knew how in their still lifes and interiors full of poetry "Small Dutchmen" or Chardin. The author endows simple objects with deeply personal symbolism, the circle of initiates into which shrinks again to the “neighbor” - his own - circle. Before us is not a stylization, but the works of an artist who has absorbed the searches and interests of the present day, in whose art creative traditions of different times are combined, as befits in crisis creative epochs, fraught with new discoveries.This is precisely the border of the XX and XXI centuries.

The material was prepared on the basis of an article by Andrey Tolstoy, Doctor of Arts, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts

Dmitry Evgenievich Ikonnikov-Tsipulin was born on January 31, 1952 in Murmansk. In his desire to devote himself to artistic creativity Ikonnikov was determined early enough. Since 1969, after graduating from high school, he worked as a master-performer in the monumental workshop of the Moscow Regional Works of Art. At the same time, he attended evening drawing classes at the Moscow State Art Institute. V.I.Surikov. This was followed by years of study - at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. VI Lenin at the Faculty of Art and Graphics, then - at the Moscow State Art Institute. V.I.Surikov, where he was admitted immediately to the second year of the graphic faculty with the support of the famous Soviet artist E.A.Kibrik. In 1981 he graduated from the Moscow State Academic Art Institute. V.I.Surikov.

In the 80s, the artist worked in the field of unique and printed posters. He created works that were recognized by the public and colleagues. After that he was engaged in book graphics, illustrated a number of books.

Member of the Union of Artists of Russia (1998), Creative Union of Artists of Russia (1995), Moscow Union of Artists (2003), Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Culture and Arts (2008), Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts (2011).

Personal exhibitions of the master were held in Russia, Sweden, Norway, South Korea. The master’s works are in Russian museums and private collections in the USA, Germany, Norway, Japan, Sweden, South Korea.