"Inking". Exhibition of works by Alexander Tikhomirov

In the exhibition halls of the Russian Academy of Arts (Prechistenka, 21), the opening of the exhibition of works by the People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts Alexander Tikhomirov, “Okonopis”, will take place.

Alexander Tikhomirov is the author of a new direction in painting “Okontopis”, registered in the Russian Authors Society in 1995. The artist continues the best traditions of the masters of Russian iconography, but not in form, not by canonical technology, but by the depth of the created and experienced images. “Okonopishe” is religious plots performed by tempera on old window shutters.

A. Tikhomirov was born in 1956 in the city of Elektrostal, Moscow Region, in the artist’s family. He graduated from the Moscow Art School of Memory in 1905, in 1984 - the department of monumental and decorative painting of the Moscow Artists’ and Art School (former Stroganovskoye), the workshop of G. M. Korzhev. More than thirty years living and working in the city of Blagoveshchensk, Amur Region. He completed a number of successful monumental projects - mosaics that adorned the public buildings of the Far Eastern region. The culmination of the artist’s creative development was the “Okonopisse” style, which has no analogues in the world.

The artist in his technique emphasizes comes from nature - the main material for his works is natural wood, shutters from old residential buildings. From the shutters removed, panels are cut (the components of the shutters), and then the long creative process of creating the image follows.

As the art critic T. Kochemasova notes, the artist “… comes when creating an image precisely from the characteristics of the material - its expressiveness, texture, structure. All these cracks, knots, roughnesses become the basis for the composition, form a special aesthetic, emphasize the beauty of the time, which in these signs finds its flesh. It is in the intricate game of tree lines that Tikhomirov seeks the key to a new image. ”

“For me, a tree is a leaf, a canvas, on which the idea of God rests. “The tree itself was created by God, and the artist’s task is to be able to identify with a few strokes the face of the Creator, to reveal the secret of creation, to join it yourself. A. Tikhomirov.

"Savior", "Christmas", "Annunciation", "Our Lady of Vladimir", "St. Nicholas the Miracle Worker "," Trinity "," St. George "," St. The Great Martyr Panteleimon ”,“ Sergius of Radonezh ”- Tikhomirov’s works are chamber and monumental at the same time. They combine spiritual warmth, lyricism and high spirituality, captured in the images and faces of the saints. According to art historian N. Anikina, “you need to have great human and creative courage to offer your personal interpretation of the sacred canonical images that live in the heart of every Orthodox person.”

The artist’s paintings are marked by special plastic expressiveness, sophistication of the color palette. “Color in the experimental space of“ Okonopisi ”by Tikhomirov plays a special role. With his help, the faces “manifest” finally, as if they had halfway left the space of the mountain world towards us, into the world of dolly… Color does not dominate, does not accent, it releases the energy of the image, ”writes art critic T. Kochemasova.

The artist’s unique works are well known in Russia and abroad. They are in museums and private collections in Russia and in many countries of the world, including Israel, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Austria, and China. A. Tikhomirov has already exhibited his works three times in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior; there was an exhibition in the Pushkin Museum to them. Pushkin in Moscow.

Alexander Tikhomirov - People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, Knight of the Order of Friendship, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts, Member of the Creative Union of Artists of Russia, Chairman of the Board of the AROO TLC of the Russian Federation, Vice President of the Academy of World Arts “New Era”, Professor of BSPU. Winner of the Order of the Russian Orthodox Church "Rev. Andrei Rublev III degree", holder of the order "Beneficence" III degree, was awarded gold medals of the Russian Academy of Arts and TLC and other awards. Honorary Citizen of the city of Blagoveshchensk.

“The concept of“ window painting ”came to me in a dream and became for me the meaning of life. This is my direction of authorship. “Eye”, “window”, “window-painting” - words sound like root words. The essence of icon painting is that I began to write works on Orthodox themes, using window shutters as a material. After all, windows are the eyes of the house. And the shutters are a kind of eyelashes that protect the eye from the evil eye, from a stone thrown by an evil hand. The Gospel of Luke says: "If your eye is clean, then your whole body will be light, and if it is bad, then your body will be dark." This for me is a kind of epigraph to window painting, because I do religious, spiritual painting. Speaking very definitely, the window painting is the same icon painting, only outside the monastery. Each of my work is, in fact, an icon painted by a secular but deeply religious person that I became a student when I secretly got baptized (times were atheistic) in the Tarasov Church. Since then, my life has been accompanied by fasting and prayer, and my workshop has become my “monastery”. ” A. Tikhomirov.

The exhibition is open to visitors from November 8 to December 4, 2016.