Exhibition of works by Vitaly Petrov-Kamchatsky

The Russian Academy of Arts presents an exhibition of works by the Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts, Professor, Rector of the Krasnoyarsk State Art Institute Vitaly Petrov-Kamchatsky (1988-1993), timed to coincide with the 85th anniversary of the artist’s birth. The exposition contains about 40 graphic sheets from different years.

Today he is the only master in Russia who so fully, weightily and widely devoted his work to the Far East: Chukotka, Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Yakutia, who conquered him with their unique beauty. On this topic, the artist created extensive series of works in the techniques of easel and book graphics, expressive paintings. A native Muscovite, he found himself far from the capital. Today, his works adorn many museum collections in Russia and abroad, among them the State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin, Ludwig Gallery (Cologne, Germany), State Museum of the Orient, etc.

The creative biography of Vitaly Petrov (Kamchatsky) began in the same way as that of many of his peers: studying at a secondary Moscow art school, then at the V.I.Surikov Institute. The sixties were for him a period of mastering professional skills, discovering his own topic.

The works of Petrov-Kamchatsky already then reflected the unique personality traits and attitude of their author. At the turn of the sixties - seventies, the artist turns to the technique of lithography, which has a much greater freedom of pictorial means and a wealth of nuances. His cycle "White Chukotka", created based on the impressions of travels around this region, summarizes the experience accumulated over the previous years of intense professional work.

An amazing emotional and semantic basis is laid in the cycle "White Chukotka". His sheets, created over almost six years, are a fusion of vivid impressions, seen and experienced, inspired by the artist’s romantic dream of distant wanderings, unexpected encounters and discoveries. The high bottomless sky overhead, the spherically round solidity of the earth - all this suggested unusual imaginative solutions, as if materialized in the sheets of the Chukotka cycle created by the master. The work on the cycle led Petrov-Kamchatsky to the need to search for other expressive means that organically correspond to the qualitatively new tasks of implementing the ideological and artistic concept at the junction of black-and-white and color images. This is how a number of color autolithographs arose, in which the author’s ideas about the role of color in graphics were embodied in their own way,showed his subtle gift of a colorist. Each sheet of the "Chukotka" cycle, being meaningfully and thematically connected with others, is simultaneously perceived as a completely independent, complete work, similar to a poetic novel. With rare ingenuity, strokes and lines are laid on the paper, forming a unique ornamental pattern, planes are outlined and volumes are revealed, creating a special air environment in which the action takes place. And the more generalizing, collective content becomes in the works of Petrov-Kamchatsky, the more freedom and ease he operates with the means of figurative drama. All these facets of the artist’s creative individuality, which were revealed in the aggregate in the cycle "White Chukotka", received further development, a logical continuation in the works of the outstanding master of the seventies.Each sheet of the "Chukotka" cycle, being meaningfully and thematically connected with others, is simultaneously perceived as a completely independent, complete work, similar to a poetic novel. With rare ingenuity, strokes and lines are laid on the paper, forming a unique ornamental pattern, planes are outlined and volumes are revealed, creating a special air environment in which the action takes place. And the more generalizing, collective content becomes in the works of Petrov-Kamchatsky, the more freedom and ease he operates with the means of figurative drama. All these facets of the artist’s creative individuality, which were revealed in the aggregate in the cycle "White Chukotka", received further development, a logical continuation in the works of the outstanding master of the seventies.Each sheet of the "Chukotka" cycle, being meaningfully and thematically connected with others, is simultaneously perceived as a completely independent, complete work, similar to a poetic novel. With rare ingenuity, strokes and lines are laid on the paper, forming a unique ornamental pattern, planes are outlined and volumes are revealed, creating a special air environment in which the action takes place. And the more generalizing, collective content becomes in the works of Petrov-Kamchatsky, the more freedom and ease he operates with the means of figurative drama. All these facets of the artist’s creative individuality, which were revealed in the aggregate in the cycle "White Chukotka", received further development, a logical continuation in the works of the outstanding master of the seventies.being meaningfully and thematically connected with others, at the same time it is perceived as a completely independent, complete work, similar to a poetic novella. With rare ingenuity, strokes and lines are laid on the paper, forming a unique ornamental pattern, planes are outlined and volumes are revealed, creating a special air environment in which the action takes place. And the more generalizing, collective content becomes in the works of Petrov-Kamchatsky, the more freedom and ease he operates with the means of figurative drama. All these facets of the artist’s creative individuality, which were revealed in the aggregate in the cycle "White Chukotka", received further development, a logical continuation in the works of the outstanding master of the seventies.being meaningfully and thematically connected with others, at the same time it is perceived as a completely independent, complete work, similar to a poetic novella. With rare ingenuity, strokes and lines are laid on the paper, forming a unique ornamental pattern, planes are outlined and volumes are revealed, creating a special air environment in which the action takes place. And the more generalizing, collective content becomes in the works of Petrov-Kamchatsky, the more freedom and ease he operates with the means of figurative drama. All these facets of the artist’s creative individuality, which were revealed in the aggregate in the cycle "White Chukotka", received further development, a logical continuation in the works of the outstanding master of the seventies.a completed work, similar to a poetic novella. With rare ingenuity, strokes and lines are laid on the paper, forming a unique ornamental pattern, planes are outlined and volumes are revealed, creating a special air environment in which the action takes place. And the more generalizing, collective content becomes in the works of Petrov-Kamchatsky, the more freedom and ease he operates with the means of figurative drama. All these facets of the artist’s creative individuality, which were revealed in the aggregate in the cycle "White Chukotka", received further development, a logical continuation in the works of the outstanding master of the seventies.a completed work, similar to a poetic novella. With rare ingenuity, strokes and lines are laid on the paper, forming a unique ornamental pattern, planes are outlined and volumes are revealed, creating a special air environment in which the action takes place. And the more generalizing, collective content becomes in the works of Petrov-Kamchatsky, the more freedom and ease he operates with the means of figurative drama. All these facets of the artist’s creative individuality, which were revealed in the aggregate in the cycle "White Chukotka", received further development, a logical continuation in the works of the outstanding master of the seventies.creating a special air environment in which the action takes place. And the more generalizing, collective content becomes in the works of Petrov-Kamchatsky, the more freedom and ease he operates with the means of figurative drama. All these facets of the artist’s creative individuality, which were revealed in the aggregate in the cycle "White Chukotka", received further development, a logical continuation in the works of the outstanding master of the seventies.creating a special air environment in which the action takes place. And the more generalizing, collective content becomes in the works of Petrov-Kamchatsky, the more freedom and ease he operates with the means of figurative drama. All these facets of the artist’s creative individuality, which were revealed in the aggregate in the cycle "White Chukotka", received further development, a logical continuation in the works of the outstanding master of the seventies.logical continuation in the works of the outstanding master of the seventies.logical continuation in the works of the outstanding master of the seventies.

The works of Petrov-Kamchatsky, such as "Time to hunt for a sea animal", "The Shore of the Chukchi Sea" and "Northern bread", testify to the strengthening of epic intonations, the appearance of features of a certain monumentalization of the content, the accentuation of the eventual beginning in a specific life situation, in the depiction of the ordinary motive.

The artist illustrated more than 15 books of stories, legends and epics of the peoples of the North and the Far East, and also created graphic sheets for the works of Yuri Ratkheu, Ivan Shestalov, Vladimir Sangi, Chingiz Aitmatov. Books with illustrations by V.N.Petrov-Kamchatsky were published in Germany, Italy, Japan, Portugal.

The work of the master is a unique example of loyalty to the chosen topic and professional exactingness. The works of Petrov-Kamchatsky are marked by an optimistic perception of the world, a sense of its infinite diversity, inspired mastery, and a special poetics of a spiritual relationship to all that exists.