Exhibition Arkady Petrov "Without love there is no happiness"

Arkady Petrov’s exhibition “Without love, there is no happiness” will be held in the ARTSTORY gallery from March 29 to May 20, 2018. The project includes more than 100 works: this is painting and sculpture of different years, from the 1970s. - to this day, one of the leaders of the generation of "artists of the seventies." The city signboard, the popular pub, the life of a “little” person from a totalitarian state, the work and leisure of residents of workers’ villages, sketching of provincial life, visual images of Soviet-era mass culture, the naive appeal of kitsch are the main themes of Petrov’s paintings and oilcloths.

Petrov reinterprets the stereotypes of the life of a simple Soviet person through the paradoxical kitsch images of mass culture, his personal very complicated history and the history of the country.

Art historians and art critics have a different name for the classics of contemporary Russian art. "Socialist artist", "primitivist", "naive", "avant-garde", "postmodernist"… Arkady Petrov himself is not going to answer the question "Who am I?", But offers to look at the "source", "spring", if you want, from which he took material, what he uses in his work, and to draw conclusions himself. This is “and, firstly, and secondly,” - his life in the Donbass. The artist comes from a mining village near Gorlovka. "Mines, poverty… Life went on among very mundane people whom nobody sees, hears, the so-called mass, the poor."

The main assets of the village were a bazaar and a culture park. The bazaar was a theater. A culture park with pubs - a place for workers to relax. At the bazaar, they sold carpets painted on sheets, blankets, and paper. With beauties, swans, chic men. Happiness, summer, beauties, resorts… “How else could people have fun? They bought carpets, went to a photo studio, dreamed of Sochi, and also listened to Alla Pugacheva - this is pure kitsch for me. It is mine. The world where I lived, and I live now. Until now, I am fond of such manifestations. ”

Most likely, Arkady Petrov, a singer of aesthetics of kitsch, can be considered a “kitschism” if such a definition ever appears. Not only in the names of works, but also in self-valuable inscriptions in pictures all the impressions of the artist’s childhood flourish, from here themes are still drawn that refer to visual images of the Soviet era. “Without love, there is no happiness”; "Fate will make us part, but will not make us stop loving"; “At the resort”; "The pneumatic shooting range works from 10 to 12 hours…"; "Glory to Labor. Repair of bags "; "Hello to our gardeners"; finally, “Wait for me”; "Be ready," and right next to it is "Intimacy at home" and "PEACE, LABOR For the happiness of ordinary people."

Petrov’s peculiar attitude towards women and beauty is expressed in almost all of his works. As an introduction to the personal project in the ARTSTORY gallery, the artist puts words from an interview with the famous film director Guillermo del Toro, which are in tune with Petrovsky’s understanding of love and beauty: “Love lies in the fact that a person does not see another person’s shortcomings - that she doesn’t dress well, that she is fat… He sees only the miracle that it is for him… Love needs to be accepted, no matter what form it takes. " The artist’s original texts — sketches dating back to the 90s of the last century — can be found in the art album published for the exhibition project “Without Love, There Is No Happiness”. With many texts, as well as works presented in the exposition, the viewer will get acquainted for the first time.

Arkady Petrov was born in 1940 in the mining village "Komsomolets" near Gorlovka, Donetsk region. In 1957 he moved to Moscow. He graduated from the Art School “In Memory of 1905” (1964) and the Moscow State Art Institute. V.I. Surikova (1969). Participates in exhibitions since 1970. In the Soviet years, his works were practically banned from official display. By the end of the 1980s, the artist was becoming more and more famous. Participates in a number of major exhibitions, which were supervised by Oleg Kulik and director Sergei Solovyov. His work “Dancing. A brass band is playing ”is sold for an incredible 3,000 pounds at the famous Sotheby’s auction in 1988 - the 30th anniversary of this auction is now actively celebrated in the art world. However, Arkady Petrov treats that “sale” very evenly, almost indifferently, as well as the general presence of his works at various auctions.

The artist’s works are in the State Russian Museum, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Modern Art ART4, P. Ludwig Museum (Cologne, Germany), Ludwig Foundation for Contemporary Art (Aachen, Germany), National Museum of Modern Art (Seoul, South Korea), Simmerli Museum of Art (collection of Norton Dodge, New Jersey, USA), Kostaki Gallery (Greece) and many other museum and private collections.

ARTSTORY Gallery: Moscow, Staropimenovsky per., D. 14 (metro Tverskaya, Mayakovskaya). Every day, except Mondays, from 12.00 to 20.00. Free admission.