Exhibition "Impossible art and optical illusions in enamel technique"

From May 18 to June 4, 2017, the Volga branch of the Russian Academy of Arts in Saratov presents the exhibition project "Impossible art and optical illusions in enamel technique."

Curator - Eugene Matiko, head of the Enamel Creative Workshop, TO “Impossible Art”, associate professor of Moscow State Art Academy named after S. G. Stroganova. The exhibition was organized as part of the experimental creative workshop of the Volga branch of the Russian Academy of Arts and the Creative Union of Russian Artists with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Russia. The idea of the exhibition project was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Saratov Region.

Vernissage and presentation of the catalog will take place on May 18 at 15.00 in the exhibition hall of the A.P. Bogolyubov Saratov Art College (Universitetskaya, 59). The opening is planned to be attended by the vice-president of the Russian Academy of Arts, the president of TSHR Konstantin Khudyakov, the curator of the exhibition Yevgeny Matiko, an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts Konstantin Markov. As part of the presentation of the exhibition in Saratov, it is planned to hold workshops on May 19 for students of the Bogolyubovsky school.

The exhibition project “Impossible art and optical illusions in enamel technique” appeared as a result of a synthesis of two artistic ideas: “IMP-ART: impossible art and optical illusions” and “Moscow International Exhibition of Art Enamel”, conceived and implemented by the curator of the exhibition, Evgeny Matiko, section chairman decorative art of the Creative Union of Artists of Russia (Moscow). The success of these projects, presented at various museum sites in Moscow, Saratov, Minsk, Pskov, Kaluga, Tula, Maykop, allowed us to develop original ideas in a new quality. The exhibition exhibits visual techniques “Impossible art”, widely used in various genres of fine, decorative and applied art and design, presented in a rare technique of high-temperature enamel and decal. This approach undoubtedly expands the boundaries of creativity, allowing artists of various specialties to realize their ideas in enamel technique. Traditionally, famous and novice masters from Russia, Hungary, Denmark, Spain, Germany, India participate in the project, continuing to amaze professionals and art lovers with new “impossible” works.

During 2016, the exhibition was successfully exhibited in Moscow at the Tushino Exhibition Center and the Overcoming State Museum Center, the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts and the Tula Regional Art Museum.

The works of academicians of the Russian Academy of Arts, Moscow and Saratov artists: Zurab Tsereteli, Konstantin Khudyakov, Nikolay Vdovkin, Mukhadin Kishev, Georgy Likhovid, Evgeniy Matiko, Anastasia Agafonova, Maxim Kireev, Konstantin Markov, Aleksandr,, Vyacheslav Koleichuk, Anton Batishev and others. Among foreign authors are Vincent Mevil Segui (Spain), Barbara Lipp (Germany), Catalina Holosha (Hungary), Maria Torok (Hungary), Megan Salgaon Kara (India), Thomas de Bose (Denmark), etc.

Information about the artistic movement “Impossible art”

The artistic movement of fine art “Impossible art” finally formed in Europe in the 80s of the XX century as an organic part of optical art. The pictorial basis of this trend was geometry of trompe l’oeil and other spectacular visual illusions obtained as a result of drawing impossible figures. The names of the founders of IMP-ART are widely known. This is Penrose, Reutersward, Asher.

Russian artists were also interested in the expressive capabilities of IMP-ART, but in the USSR this direction of art was not supported and there were no exhibitions. Isolated attempts have been made to popularize this trend. Only in the 1990s did the opportunity to get acquainted with the work of the founders of IMP-ART.

Currently, projects of impossible figures, visual illusions and puzzles continue to interest and inspire a number of Russian designers and artists. The first exhibition "IMP-ART" was held in April 2013 in the Moscow exhibition hall "Tushino". More than one hundred works of forty-three artists were presented.

In art circles, the project aroused genuine interest and attracted new participants. The continuation took place in 2014 in Kaluga and Saratov (in the Radishchev Museum). The exhibition and the scientific-practical conference on the issues of “Impossible art” were organized at the Stroganov Academy (2014).

Visual effects and optical illusions are taken into account when creating exhibition expositions and clothes, font development and all kinds of optical compensations for the composition. By itself, the class of “impossible” figures, that is, objects that are dual in their spatial and graphic characteristics, retains its heuristic appeal.

The organizers of the exhibition hope that the new exhibition “Impossible art and optical illusions in enamel technique” will be interesting to a wide circle of artists and admirers of visual art. First of all, students and teachers of art departments of Saratov universities and the Bogolyubov school. Within the framework of this project, the problems of the development and use of impossible figures and optical illusions in enamel technique, in modern design are considered.