"Reflexes". Exhibition of works by Evgeny Vakhtangov

In the halls of the Russian Academy of Arts (Prechistenka 21), a retrospective exhibition of the academician of the Russian Academy of Arts Evgeny Sergeyevich Vakhtangov will open.

Evgeny Vakhtangov is the successor of the famous Vakhtangovs dynasty: his grandfather is an outstanding director Evgeni Vakhtangov (1883-1922), his father is a famous architect Sergei Vakhtangov (1907-1987), which largely predetermined the artist’s desire to closely connect his life with the world of art. Vakhtangov graduated from the Moscow secondary art school, and then entered the Moscow State Art Institute. IN AND. Surikov, in the workshop of theatrical decoration art. His teachers were outstanding masters of domestic art - F.F. Ryndin, D.D. Zhilinsky, M.M. Kurilko-Ryumin. Since the 1970s, the artist has been actively participating in both domestic and foreign exhibitions, in which he became famous primarily for his memorable works in the landscape genre. In 1974, Vakhtangov was admitted to the MOSKh painting section.

Since the 1980s, a new stage has begun in the artist’s work: figurativeness disappears in his works and the stylistic and ideological influences of the avant-garde, neo-primitivism, minimalism and abstract art begin to manifest brightly. Critics then noted that in Vakhtangov’s paintings during this period “overwhelming apocalyptic abysses” began to be seen.

In the 1990s, the artist joined the Polygon art group, and also became a teacher in the painting class at the stage design department of the Russian Academy of Theater Arts (GITIS). During this period, Vakhtangov was remembered primarily as the founder of the “spontasyur” trend, continuing to develop his work in line with non-figurative art, which made him a vivid figure in the artistic life of Russia. In connection with the master’s appeal to a wide range of ideological and stylistic directions, to unambiguously classify his work seems to be a rather difficult task: the influence of pointillism, assemblage, and abstraction is felt here.

The exposition of the exhibition will include more than 30 works by the artist, which encompass all of his work - from early figurative paintings to abstract pointillism and collage. The artist uses the “reflex” as a metaphor to search for the ontological meaning of his own painting. The master’s constant allusions to the legacy of modernist art of the past, coupled with the original author’s look, which ultimately generates completely distinctive art, allow Vakhtangov to be attributed to the galaxy of the most outstanding and interesting contemporary artists. The works of Yevgeny Vakhtangov are in the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and other leading museum and private collections in Russia and abroad.

The exhibition is open to visitors from April 25 to May 20, 2018.