Nikolay Vdovkin, Ekaterina Vdovkina "Two generations"

In the halls of the Russian Academy of Arts, an exhibition of works by the Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, Professor Nikolai Mikhailovich Vdovkin and Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Arts Ekaterina Nikolaevna Vdovkina - representatives of the famous Russian creative dynasty of artists - enamel painters - opens. The exposition will include more than 50 easel works of the last few years, made in the technique of hot enamel, demonstrating the main direction of the masters’ creativity, the vector of their author’s searches and one of the facets of the most interesting phenomenon of contemporary art.

The history of enamel art goes back many centuries. Since ancient times, it has been used not only as an excellent material for decorating jewelry and decorative items, but also as a material for fine art. Suffice it to recall the famous Byzantine, Limoges or Chinese works. The customers of the works were the church, the houses of noble nobles. In the West and in the East, whole ensembles were created from enamel. In Russia, one of the periods of its heyday is associated with the work of the artists Usolye, Veliky Ustyug, Rostov Veliky, the activities of workshops and monastic schools of enamel painting, the development of portrait miniature. A new rise in the art of enamel emerged at the end of the 20th century, when it found itself at the center of innovative artistic searches. Referring to the rich cultural heritage and experience of the masters of the past,contemporary artists chose the path of creating unique works of authorship, applying the most ancient technology in easel and monumental forms of art, looking for plastic and technical techniques, their own imagery.

Nikolai Mikhailovich Vdovkin is not only one of those who stood at the origins of modern artistic enamel, but also the internationally recognized leader of the regional school. He was born in 1948, in 1972 he graduated from the Faculty of Interior and Equipment of the Moscow Art and Industry Academy. S. G. Stroganova (formerly MVHPU). From the very beginning of his creative activity, his inclination to work in the material was manifested. He began with experiments in glass, created a number of stained glass windows for interiors in Khabarovsk. The artist also worked in metal. Comprehensively solving the design of interiors, he made a number of lamps from non-ferrous metal. Since the mid-1980s, after the first trip to Kecskemet (Hungary) to an international symposium on enamel, he turned to it as the basis of his work. Since then, he has constantly participated in symposia in Hungary,which over time acquired the significance of not only fruitful creative meetings, but also an experimental laboratory, an incentive for professional and technical improvement. For several decades, the master has gone through a difficult path of mastering the ancient technology, creating his own pictorial techniques.

Vdovkin’s enamels are close to painting. Fire plays only the role of a binder here. The artist uses a wide palette of high and low fired enamels, which give a different surface: shiny and matte, smooth and textured. The combined technique helps to obtain not only the desired texture, but often gives a new artistic result. The decorative expressiveness of the silhouette and color plays the main role in the pictorial solution of the works. The favorite format of the artist’s enamel works is a panel in the size of an easel painting, which allows a confidential conversation with the viewer. Over the years, the author’s style has reached such a level of mastery that there are practically no topics and plots left for him inaccessible. His works are distinguished by their novelty and expressiveness of images. N. Vdovkin is attracted by plots with an emphatically symbolic meaning. Peace,created by the artist, filled with play, paradoxes. The constant themes of his work are love, the struggle between good and evil, nature, space, world space. Most of the works have a philosophical sound ("Two Generations", "Way of the Cross", "Remembrance"). In many works, the depth of the image is achieved by combining the sacred and the mundane ("Motherhood", "Paris Madonna"). The exhibition introduces the works of a wide thematic range and allows one to appreciate the master’s mastery.The exhibition introduces the works of a wide thematic range and allows one to appreciate the master’s mastery.The exhibition introduces the works of a wide thematic range and allows one to appreciate the master’s mastery.

N. Vdovkin works a lot not only in easel painting enamel, but also in the technique of wall painting in the interiors of churches, creates monumental icons, such as those installed in 1997 on the facades of the building of St. Nicholas Cathedral in the city of Zheleznovodsk. He develops and implements in the material complete complexes of monumental and decorative painting, where enamel is harmoniously combined with traditional painting techniques. Among them are works in the Olginsky temple of Zheleznovodsk (1992–1994), the Church of St. George the Victorious in the Rokada complex of the Mineralovodsk region (2004–2005).

The artist lives and works in the Stavropol Territory. He transfers his experience and skills to the students of the Southern Federal University, teaches in Italy (Bergamo), in Germany (Deidesheim, Himmerod, Han-Munden). Since 1991, on the basis of his workshop in Pobegailovka, he has been holding creative international symposia on enamel, and is the head of the Guild of Enamellers of Russia. N. Vdovkin - participant of regional, Russian and all-Union exhibitions (since 1973) The master’s works are in museums in Moscow, many cities of Russia and abroad, as well as in private collections in many countries of the world. The artist has received high academic and social awards.

The artistic traditions of the family are continued by their daughter Ekaterina Vdovkina. She was born in 1978, graduated from the Abramtsevo College of Art and Industry named after I. V.M. Vasnetsov, then the faculty of artistic metal processing of the St. Petersburg State Art and Industry Academy named after A.L.Stieglitz (formerly V.I. Ekaterina Nikolaevna is a member of the Union of Artists of Russia, a member of the Creative Union of Artists of Russia, a member of the Creative Union of Icon Painters of Russia, laureate of many professional competitions, awarded the gold medal of the Russian Academy of Arts. She works in architecture, creates stained glass windows, murals, icon painting, easel and decorative compositions. An innate sense of the material, the ability to combine a variety of techniques in her work is combined in her works with the original theme. "Hands of the Creator", "Old House",“Ancient civilizations” and others. Her works show the approach to creativity inherited from her father, the desire for constant improvement of skills, deep experience of the problems of the modern world. And at the same time, the works of E. Vdovkina have a brightly individual imagery and pictorial solution.

The suites of easel enamels of father and daughter are a dialogue of two generations, and in a broader sense - a roll call of eras, in their incessant self-knowledge, artistic comprehension of the meaning of life.

In the preparation of the material, articles by art critics M.V. Khabarova, I. Yu. Perfilieva were used.