The World of Vasily Shukshin in Ivan Popov’s Art

Prose by Vasily Shukshin. Paintings by Ivan Popov. These two distinct worlds — created by the pen and painted with the brush —seemingly mirror each other… This similarity, this vivid symmetry, full of nuances and details, attracts the attention of even those who encounter Ivan Popov’s works for the first time without any prior knowledge of the artist. ‘Wow, it is just like the world of Shukshin! ’ And they are right! Intuitively, they are right. Because this is the world of Shukshin. The real world is the village of Srostki and Mount Picket, the faces of the villagers… Vasily Shukshin and Ivan Popov were the children of the same village and were closely related, their biographies being intertwined like the threads of needlework. These adult men were friends their entire lives, creating in perfect harmony, but without repeating each other… And somewhere in that enchanted land, their muses, blonde from the Altai sun, still sit on the walkways above the Katun River, weaving wreaths of dandelions and whispering girlishly, dangling their feet over the water. And the river laughs…