Exhibition by Alexey Talashchuk "The Age of the Sixth Sun"

The Russian Academy of Arts presents an exhibition of works by People’s Artist of the Russian Federation and Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, Professor Alexei Yuryevich Talashchuk “The Age of the Sixth Sun”. The exhibition, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the author, will occupy the entire suite of academic halls on Prechistenka and will introduce viewers to several dozen paintings and graphic sheets by the famous St. Petersburg master.

The artist began his creative journey in the 1970s, when the sense of time gradually changed, and with it the attitude towards the “space” of the pictorial format. The revelations of Matisse’s decorative painting and the brilliant coloring of Dionysius’s frescoes, the powerful constructive potential of the Russian avant-garde and the classical simplicity of Giotto’s paintings entered the reality of artistic life in a new way. A bewitching world appears in the painter’s paintings – mysterious and attractive at the same time. A world of signs and symbols, incomprehensible and mysterious, and at the same time strangely familiar in their outlines, evoking vague memories of disappeared civilizations and ancient cults, containing something very important, but forgotten. To combine the moment of the “native” and “symbolic” plane is an exceptional difficulty, but, apparently, the artist is given this ability “by default.” Alexey Talashchuk explains this very succinctly: “Any, even the most fleeting, impressions remain in the memory bank: first these are quick sketches, then a thought, an idea, a form. For example, I accidentally saw a man carrying a ladder, and I wanted to look at him in as much detail and more accurately as possible. Or suddenly a woman’s attention was drawn to her as she watched her child approach the bird. Suddenly you see this episode “for yourself,” and then – a plastic conclusion from what you found.”

The master works in all genres and techniques of painting, is engaged in artistic enamel, graphics, watercolors, and monumental painting. The language of his art, no matter what material he chooses, is distinguished by clarity of form, harmony of color, and musicality of lines. In graphics, A. Yu. Talashchuk prefers large sheets, in which he combines pastels with watercolors, gradually compacting the surface and increasing the intensity of color. The same color saturation distinguishes his pictorial compositions, based on the maximum generalization of the depicted forms and the accuracy of the expressive drawing, which appears even more clearly in the enamels. When framing his works, he always strives for a solution that can enhance the sound of enamel as a precious material, revealing its inherent qualities - brilliance, colorful depth and tonal variability. To do this, he turns to such techniques as cutting, etching, artistic forging, welding, and patination.

Possessing the rare gift of seeing the hidden essence of a phenomenon behind its outer shell, the author strives for knowledge of the hidden truth, which leads him to the associative and allegorical embodiment of images. Ancient legends come to life on canvases and appear in their solemn and unsolved beauty of otherness. Hence the name of the anniversary exhibition in the academic halls - “The Age of the Sixth Sun”. This is exactly how the painter understands the current time and this is how he sees it in his works, in which the prophetic theme of the road, the path as a symbol of eternal quest often arises.

The text is based on articles by T. Gorbunova and B. Shamanov.

Alexey Yurievich Talashchuk was born in 1944 in the village of Chernyakhov, Rivne region. In 1964 he graduated from the Irkutsk Art School, then the Leningrad Higher Art and Industrial School. V. I. Mukhina. From 1972 to 1980 he worked as a muralist in Bratsk, from 1980 to 1985 - at the Leningrad Art Fund. In 1985, he began teaching at the Leningrad Art and Industry School named after V. I. Mukhina (now the St. Petersburg State Art and Industry Academy named after A. L. Stieglitz). In 1993-2009 - rector, from 2009 to 2014 - president of the A.L. Stieglitz State University of Art and Industry; currently a creative advisor.