"Cosmogonic wanderings." Exhibition of works by Nikolai Rybakov

In the halls of the Museum and Exhibition Complex of the Russian Academy of Arts Zurab Tsereteli Gallery of Art (Prechistenka, 19), the exhibition of Cosmogonic Wanderings by Nikolai Iosifovich Rybakov will open. The exhibition features more than 50 paintings, created by the artist in recent years.

Nikolay Rybakov - a famous painter, graphic artist, enamel. Honored Artist of Russia, member of the Union of Artists of Russia, member of the Union of Photographers of Russia, full member of the Petrovsky Academy of Sciences and Arts, member of the Society of Fine Arts of France (SNBA), member of the Siberian Association of Primitive Art Researchers (SAIPI).

Born May 23, 1947 in the village of Kolobovo, Trans-Baikal Territory. In 1972 he graduated from the Krasnoyarsk Art College. V.I. Surikov, where he studied under I.A. Fierer, S.F. Turov, Yu.P. Yakubovsky, and then he taught for more than ten years. Since the 1970s, he has been studying local history studies in places of disappearing settlements in the Ordzhonikidze district of the Republic of Khakassia and the Chita Region (Trans-Baikal Territory). In the future, N. I. Rybakov seriously studies the monuments of archeology, ethnography, engages in research activities, becomes a freelance employee of the SB RAS and participates in several scientific expeditions, conducts research and documentation of new petroglyphic monuments in the area of the Kuznetsk Alatau spurs along the Black and White Ices of the Republic of Khakassia. In the same period, the author begins his creative trips to Siberia (Khakassia, Buryatia, Tuva, Altai, Taimyr), the Far East, the Gobi Desert, Mongolia, Tibet, Italy and other countries.

N.I. Rybakov is a participant in numerous creative contests, including the All-Union contest Golden Brush, the All-Union Biennale of Graphic Arts in Kaliningrad, the All-Siberian Exhibition and Competition for Contemporary Art, the Baltic Biennale of Graphic Arts, the French National Society of Fine Arts (Louvre).

He conducts active exhibition activities in Russia and abroad (France, Germany, Italy, England, USA, Japan, Sweden, Finland and others). His work has been featured in many museums, including the State Museum of Oriental Art, the M’Ars Contemporary Art Center, and Erarta Museum of Modern Art.

Nikolai Rybakov, trying to find the answer to the most important question - about the unity of philosophical views and the internal laws of the plastic form, goes over to the mythopoetic imagery and stylistic unity of the grandiose creative concept of cosmogonic and cosmological teachings about Chaos and Harmony, about Darkness and Light. The formless unorganized Chaos takes on a structured image of cosmogonic Harmony.

The integrity of the creative process lies in the formal unity of the plastic language in the holistic perception of an instantly captured image - painting merges with music by the strength of the emotional impact. Through the rich texture of the picture plane, on which the vibrations of the faces of people and the outline of the steppe horses are hardly distinguishable, harmony arises. The poetics of traditional life, the familiar moral order of the Siberian patriarchal milieu are understandable and close to the master - his childhood passed in the steppes of Transbaikalia. Memories remained the most important component of creative interests and determined the thematic circle of future work cycles.

The routes of creative trips and travels led the artist to the need for serious immersion in the study of cultural polyphony of semantic signs left in Siberian Asia. The theme of Siberian Asia in his work naturally unfolds from being read to comprehending the cosmogonic unity of the world. Siberian Asia is a huge Cosmos, in the unimaginable spaces of which flows of different cultures cross. Siberia is the designated point of the Center of Asia, the invisible facet of the traditional and patriarchal world, stretching geographical boundaries from Central Asia and Mongolia to the far North.

The cycles of works on Khakassia, Tuva, Taimyr are conceived as a comprehension of ethnic and everyday manifestations in a special way of cultural traditions, in toponymic legends and folk beliefs of the peoples of Siberia.

Dramatic memories of a trip through the Gobi Desert, from the experienced horror of the real looming darkness of real Chaos and the sandy, space-absorbing, dust storm, formed the basis of a number of compositions dedicated to Mongolia. A completely different plastic movement of Light and color is structured into the space of dimensional rhythm of compositions based on the impressions of visiting the Lamayuru valley. The ascetic monastic places of Tibet are saturated with warm gold of metaphysical infinity, the memories of them remained in the serene soothing color of the work with the piercing name “Valley of Lonely Women”.

The cycles of Cosmogony are formed by a common philosophical idea. They include a complex structured spatial vision of the topic. The mystery of the name resulted in the picturesque style of the “musical movement” of color: from deep blue to turquoise.

Thematic cycles of the last three years can be combined in a single style direction, close to abstract expressionism. In the picturesque discoveries of the artist, the Light becomes the most important component, which forms the dynamics of the composition. A variety of techniques enriches the structural construction of the plane with complex reliefs and soft transparent glaze of the picturesque fabric of the canvas. The sensitivity of perception of nature becomes the basis for the completeness of metaphysical topics that can express cosmological constants in the language of painting and achieve the absolute integrity of the philosophical views of the artist’s modern aesthetic attitude.