"Portrait of Time". Exhibition of works by Alexander Teslik

The Russian Academy of Arts presents an exhibition of works by the People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts Alexander Ivanovich Teslik. The exposition consisted of about 50 works of different years.

Alexander Teslik is a major Russian graphic artist, a talented teacher, a virtuoso professional, mastering many graphic techniques. He is one of the few artists who entered Russian art in the eighties of the last century and proved with his work that realism is not limited to positivist life-likeness, but presupposes a variety of formal searches and incarnations. His creative development was influenced by the time, which appreciated the minimalistic clarity of artistic expressions, teachers, creators of the new aesthetics of the easel graphic workshop at the Surikov Institute. The workshop "in its stylistic peculiarities and imaginative preferences" researchers define it as "a school of a clever heart, a school of pure art", distinguished by its "trademark particulars": striving for linear alignment; space built in layers,and not deeply; using certain graphic techniques, for example, unidirectional shading, "annihilating physiological volume in favor of sophisticated textural materiality." Together with the leaders of the generation, A. Teslik was looking for his own path within the boundaries of modern classical art. His method of drawing combines natural observation and mastery of plastic generalizations, felt and formulated by the previous art. The themes of his works reflect the key moments of the history and life of the country in the second half of the 20th century.Teslik was looking for his own path within the boundaries of modern classical art. His method of drawing combines natural observation and mastery of plastic generalizations, felt and formulated by the previous art. The themes of his works reflect the key moments of the history and life of the country in the second half of the 20th century.Teslik was looking for his own path within the boundaries of modern classical art. His method of drawing combines natural observation and mastery of plastic generalizations, felt and formulated by the previous art. The themes of his works reflect the key moments of the history and life of the country in the second half of the 20th century.

The exhibition presents drawings from portrait series, landscapes, subject compositions made in the technique of graphite pencil, coal, sanguine, works performed in the technique of tempera painting. The artist turns to his favorite themes and motives throughout his creative life. Each of its stages is a meeting with new people, and a new round of thinking about the world, and new artistic discoveries. This is how extensive cycles of works are born, embodying not only a wide geography of trips, capturing the appearance and images of hundreds of people, but also the creative quest of the master. An unsolved mystery, attractive, arousing constant interest, for him remains a man, his changeable appearance, the universe of his inner world. He admires it, studies it, examines it. As a true Master, A.Teslik for each portrait image finds a special pictorial form, changes performing techniques, moving "from the aesthetics of an undeveloped, almost lead pencil to energetic stroking brutality." He paints young, young, mature faces twisted by old age. And often the form is extremely aggravated. But his sometimes almost grotesque drawings remain deeply soulful and human in their figurative essence.

One of the main themes of the artist’s work is the embodiment of the courage and heroism of the fighters of law and order, the difficult work of law enforcement officers. As one of the leading masters of the Studio of Artists named after V.V. Vereshchagin of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, he repeatedly traveled to the areas of hostilities in the Chechen Republic, North Ossetia, creating cycles of deeply psychological works based on the results of his business trips. The works of the series were not included in the exposition, but are widely known to the viewer from previous exhibitions.

The most expressive section of the exhibition was works from the series of drawings "Northern Village" (coal, sanguine) and works from the cycle "Orthodox Greece" made in the technique of tempera painting. Heartfelt and meaningful, they are filled with a deep sense of the unity of man and nature, a sense of the unity of the world.

Experts attribute the Mirror (1983) graphic sheet (1983) to the undoubted creative successes of Alexander Teslik, noting it as a kind of “image-symbol of the time-era before its crushing”. “The title of the sheet refers to the generational cult film by Andrei Tarkovsky and at the same time to the pathos of the Komsomol shock construction projects, to the vigor of construction brigades, reminds you, an old man, of the joys of youth, which did not notice the difficulties without which the current success would be devalued. Through the looking glass of the drawing, the eternal femininity was reflected, looking for fate not in the office-planktonic environment of the capital, but on construction sites "scattered around the cities" of the entire Union. A drawing about "how young we were, how sincerely we loved, how we believed in ourselves!" And also about falling in love with a girl in a scarf with the artist’s stars,forgetting everything "on a woeful land, / When your face in a simple frame / Before me shone on the table" (A. Blok).

Time mercilessly separates the creators, singling out those who symbolize their generation. By the early drawings of Alexander Teslik, one can judge not just the era of the 80s, with all its absurdities, but about the era in its recognized noble perfection ”.

Based on an article by Professor S.A. Gavrilyachenko, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation

Alexander Ivanovich Teslik was born in 1950 in the city of Bobrik-Donskoy, Tula region, graduated from the Yaroslavl Art School, in 1980, with honors from the M.G. V.I.Surikov, workshop of easel graphics by N.A.Ponomarev, B.A.Uspensky, A. B. Yakushin. Then he completed an internship at the Creative Workshop of the USSR Academy of Arts under the guidance of a full member of the USSR Academy of Arts OG Vereisky. After graduating, he worked in the workshop of the Unique Graphics of the Combine of Graphic Arts. Since 1992, it has been a member of the V.V. Vereshchagin Artists’ Studio of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. For more than 25 years A.I. Teslik has been teaching. He taught at the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of Ilya Glazunov, since 2002 - Head of the Department of Drawing and Head of the Easel Graphic Workshop of the Moscow State Academic Art Institute. V.I.Surikova, member of the State Electoral Commission of the country’s leading art universities,academician-secretary of the Department of Graphics and member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Arts. A. I. Teslik is a participant of the largest exhibitions held in the country and abroad. Numerous personal exhibitions of the master were successfully held. Among the main works of the series of graphic works "Metallurgists of Tula", "Kerch Land", the cycle of works "Special Forces Detachment" Rus ", expressive portrait series:" Young Scientists of Moscow State University "," Portraits of Ministers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs ", a series of portraits of residents of the village of Srostki, the village of Kupchegen, the village of Purnema, the series "Orthodox Greece", and others. The artist has received many awards: a diploma and a gold medal of V.V. Vereshchagin "For his contribution to the development and continuation of the tradition of Russian realism in art", a prize of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the field of literature, culture and art.held in the country and abroad. Numerous personal exhibitions of the master were successfully held. Among the main works of the series of graphic works "Metallurgists of Tula", "Kerch Land", the cycle of works "Special Forces Detachment" Rus ", expressive portrait series:" Young Scientists of Moscow State University "," Portraits of Ministers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs ", a series of portraits of residents of the village of Srostki, the village of Kupchegen, the village of Purnema, the series "Orthodox Greece", and others. The artist has received many awards: a diploma and a gold medal of V.V. Vereshchagin "For his contribution to the development and continuation of the tradition of Russian realism in art", a prize of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the field of literature, culture and art.held in the country and abroad. Numerous personal exhibitions of the master were successfully held. Among the main works of the series of graphic works "Metallurgists of Tula", "Kerch Land", the cycle of works "Special Forces Detachment" Rus ", expressive portrait series:" Young Scientists of Moscow State University "," Portraits of Ministers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs ", a series of portraits of residents of the village of Srostki, the village of Kupchegen, the village of Purnema, the series "Orthodox Greece", and others. The artist has received many awards: a diploma and a gold medal of V.V. Vereshchagin "For his contribution to the development and continuation of the tradition of Russian realism in art", a prize of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the field of literature, culture and art.expressive portrait series: "Young Scientists of Moscow State University", "Portraits of Ministers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs", a series of portraits of residents of the village of Srostki, the village of Kupchegen, the village of Purnema, the series "Orthodox Greece", and others. The artist has received many awards: a diploma and a gold medal of V.V. Vereshchagin "For his contribution to the development and continuation of the tradition of Russian realism in art", a prize of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the field of literature, culture and art.expressive portrait series: "Young Scientists of Moscow State University", "Portraits of Ministers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs", a series of portraits of residents of the village of Srostki, the village of Kupchegen, the village of Purnema, the series "Orthodox Greece", and others. The artist has received many awards: a diploma and a gold medal of V.V. Vereshchagin "For his contribution to the development and continuation of the tradition of Russian realism in art", a prize of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the field of literature, culture and art.