"Journey of a lifetime". Exhibition of works by Fyodor Konyukhov

The Russian Academy of Arts presents an exhibition of works by Fyodor Filippovich Konyukhov, a full member of the Russian Geographical Society and Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, “A Lifelong Journey”. Climbing Everest, circumnavigating the world alone, flying in a hot air balloon - Fedor Konyukhov’s life is full of dangerous adventures and interesting meetings. The most famous traveler of our time became famous not only for his expeditions, he is also a recognized graphic artist, painter, writer and teacher.

The presented exposition combines the author’s paintings and graphics and is part of an art collection that spans three decades of travel around the world - from early works written in the 1970s and 80s to paintings created in the 2000s and 2020s. These are plot paintings and portraits, animalistic motifs and free landscape improvisations, large-scale, expressive, marked by the conventionality of the pictorial solution and sometimes gravitating towards pure abstraction.

The artist’s early works date back to the early 1970s. Several years spent on a research expedition in Chukotka allowed him to create hundreds of graphic works on the theme "Life and way of life of the peoples of the North." Sketches made during numerous expeditions, as well as the results of visiting various countries, subsequently formed the basis of his paintings, graphic sheets, lithographs, etchings, in which the artist sought to create a harmonious image of the unity of man and nature.

Fedor Filippovich improved his skills by working on graphic series in the Chelyuskinskaya and Senezh art houses, and later in art studios abroad. The arrival in the spring of 1981 in the house of creativity "Chelyuskinskaya" marked the beginning of his systematic work in graphics. In the same year, his graphic works were exhibited for the first time at the republican youth exhibition. They were attracted by the knowledge and feeling of the topic, the expressiveness of the solutions. In 1982, he already selected a series of drawings for their translation into etching, and here A. Bill, his artistic director, played a huge role in the development of Konyukhov’s skill. The number of sheets he created broke the record. At that time, Fedor Konyukhov, carried away by the romance of what he saw, depicts both the majestic seascape, and the struggle of courageous people with the elements, and the life of our “smaller brothers”.

F. F. Konyukhov wrote more than 20 books with author’s illustrations about his travels, is a regular participant in Russian and international exhibitions. The artist’s solo exhibitions were held with great success at the largest Russian venues: at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2015), at the Far Eastern Art Museum (Khabarovsk, 2019), at the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg, 2019), at the Museum of the World Ocean (Kaliningrad, 2020), at the Samara Regional Art Museum (2021) and at the Cosmonautics and Aviation Center at VDNKh (Moscow, 2021). He is a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR (1983) and the Moscow Union of Artists (1996).

The master created more than three thousand paintings, autolithographs, drawings, collages in various techniques. The structural basis of Konyukhov’s works is a strong-willed contour drawing. It forms the frame of the image, similar to the grid of meridians and parallels compressing the globe. The artist does not seek to amaze us with the illusion of depth and volume, his plastic drama unfolds on the plane. Sometimes he turns the picture into a complex mosaic pattern, where behind the dance of lines and color spots you can’t immediately make out the figures and elements of landscapes. And sometimes it seems to cut the image into the surface of a canvas or paper: a minimal, strictly balanced set of shapes and colors creates an image of a spatio-temporal dimension, consistent with geological epochs or a cosmogonic epic.

Konyukhov loves and skillfully uses the assemblage technique in his works, creating unique narrative installations. For example, for the work “Guardian Angel”, the fabric from the balloon on which he made a round-the-world trip in the summer of 2016 served as a canvas. After landing in Australia, the shell of the balloon was cut into pieces, and part of it became the basis for the author’s new work. This laid the special meaning of the picture, because thanks to this fabric, the artist stayed in the air at an altitude of 10 km for 11 days, flew around the world at a speed of 250 km/h. As Konyukhov says, it is on such risky expeditions that he “feels that God is always there.” Turning to the iconography of Christian images, the artist allegorically reveals in his works the content of the journey as an eternal journey and an ascetic path,having both an earthly and sacred dimension.

The color in Konyukhov’s paintings is far from similar to the usual landscape portraits or plot images. Red of various shades, thick yellow, blue and green convey not so much reality as "perception and emotions, fear, joy and delight" experienced by the author, recalling the experience. And the work of the artist-traveler is the best proof of the accuracy and honesty of what he said and depicted on canvas.