"M7". Exhibition of Oleg Leonov

The exhibition halls of the Russian Academy of Arts (Moscow, Prechistenka 21) will host an exhibition of works by Oleg Aleksandrovich Leonov, Honored Artist of Russia, academician of the Russian Academy of Arts.

The exposition will comprise about 100 paintings and graphic works combined in several thematic series and representing different facets of the work of the famous Moscow artist. “M7” - the name of the exhibition, designating one of the federal highways - the road that brought the future artist to Moscow many years ago, also symbolizes the life highway - a creative path of the artist in the modern world, full of quests, artistic achievements, finds it.

Oleg Leonov was born in 1959 in Tatarstan. In 1980 he graduated from the Kazan Art College, in 1990 - Moscow State Academic Art Institute. V.I. Surikov, portrait workshop of I.S. Glazunov Since 1988 - a regular participant in Russian and foreign exhibitions. Since 1992 he has been working in the Studio of Artists named after V.V. Vereshchagin of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, currently - its head.

The master’s works are in many museums in Russia, including the State Picture Gallery named after Deineki in Kursk, State Picture Gallery named after Nesterov in Ufa, the museums of Vologda, Kostroma, the Central Museum of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, etc., in Russian and foreign private collections. OA Leonov is a laureate of the prize of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, awarded honorary state and professional awards, including the Medal of the Order for Merit to the Fatherland, II degree, departmental awards of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, awards of the Russian Academy of Arts.

The exposition of the exhibition, which includes cycles of portraits, landscapes, works on military subjects, symbolic and philosophical compositions, presents a seeker, a creatively complex, and sometimes contradictory author, artist-philosopher. Perfectly wielding the richest palette of visual aids of realistic painting, he avoids the endless variations of the subjects of field observations. Acutely sensing the nerve of time, the master is looking for themes that are consonant with him and the means of their embodiment in striving for a deep, essential correlation of content and form.

In most of his works, the artist offers the viewer a complex game of meanings and forms, which requires a common culture, imagination in interpreting images, and absolute knowledge of the technical side of the performance. With all the irony and grotesque of many of his works, unconditional skill, the ability to give the image the greatest credibility, persuasiveness allows the artist to stay in the framework of a serious conversation. And the metaphor does not become a self-sufficient component of the author’s paintings, due to the special plastic richness of each image. Evidence of this - the work of the series "Life of objects in time." In their style, there is also a definite reference to the era of “severe style” and at the same time a modern subtext. ("Rake", "Shadows of the Past"). The artist zooms in on the image, while masterfully “sculpting” the form. The contrast of the natural visual perception of the object and its embodiment on the canvas reaches a certain limit level, beyond which a new meaning of the thing is born, its new independent life begins outside its usual “function”. And then, in the spectator’s mind, a rake from an instrument turns into the personification of aggression, boots and pitchforks on plowed land as a symbol of hard work and an entire historical era. The very space of O. Leonov’s paintings is significant, metaphysical clarity combines in his nature with plastic mobility, each time leaving the viewer with the opportunity to maneuver in interpreting the image from general concepts to specific experiences.

The desire for complex associativity of figurative constructions is characteristic to one degree or another of both his portrait works and military works devoted to the history of modern police. The specifics of the plot or personality ("Uncle Vanya", "Neighbor", "Nikolai") in the artist’s pictorial interpretation finds a deep symbolic connotation. Forming extensive portrait and subject pictorial cycles, these works create a gallery of images of contemporaries and embody the author’s artistic model of the universe.

A completely different pictorial language is demonstrated by his landscape works. One of the sections of the exposition is given to the artist’s favorite topic - the history of Moscow. “Moscow-Taganka” - the series includes more than 200 works, 50 of which will be presented at the exhibition. Taganka is not accidental in the artist’s work. According to the author, this is “a real melting pot, in which different historical periods and architectural styles are inseparable. Small courtyards of Serebryanichesky Lane, a skyscraper on Kotelnicheskaya, embankments and bridges - every corner of the Tagansky district breathes history. ”Written in a light, vibrant and vibrant, almost“ impressionistic ”brush, these city landscapes are like an instant fixation of the very running of time. The "captured" momentary state is ready to be replaced by the next and so on ad infinitum.

The exposition is complemented by a series of drawings in the technique of sanguine and sepia - portraits, artistic fantasies.

Demonstrating the artistic universality of the master, the exhibition presents a deep, searching author whose work is a peculiar and regular phenomenon of contemporary Russian art culture.