Viktor Ivanovich Vechkanov was born in the Mordovian village of Batushevo. He graduated from the Ichalkovo Pedagogical College named after Sergei Kirov and later from the Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad. Since 1985 he participated in all-Union, all-Russian and foreign exhibitions. Viktor Vechkanov is one of the few Mordovian artists who organized numerous solo exhibitions abroad, in Hamburg, Baden-Baden and Fribourg. His works are housed in the Barlach Museum in Hamburg and in private collections in Germany and Switzerland.
The painting “Moksha Woman” is the left part of the triptych “On the Land of Mordovia”, created by the artist in 1986. The right part, now in the collection of the Mordovian Museum of Fine Arts, depicts a portrait of an Erzya woman in the same manner. The image fits into the aesthetics of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when artists were in search of new expressive means for their creative experiments. The artists studied the art of previous decades, appealing to the traditions of the Renaissance, Classicism as well as national motifs.
The piece is of a lyrical and confessional tone. The composition of the painting is simple and clear, but it contains deep philosophical meaning. In the center of the painting there is a female figure accentuated with bright colors against a landscape background. Following formally the realistic tradition, the artist recreates an image, the symbolism of which is underpinned by the conventionality of landscape and details. The eternal mystery is embodied in the protagonist, who, like Mona Lisa, came down from a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, reincarnated centuries later in the image of a Moksha woman on the background of the Volga expanses.
Viktor Ivanovich Vechkanov designs a stylized headdress, which also refers the viewer to the intricate Renaissance headwear. The stylization is based on the Moksha tradition of wearing two headscarves, the upper and the lower ones. On the one hand, we see a symbol of beauty beyond time and space, on the other hand, it is the beauty of our time, which is emphasized by the contrast with everyday working life, depicted in the central part of the triptych “On the Threshing Floor”.
The painting “Moksha Woman” is the left part of the triptych “On the Land of Mordovia”, created by the artist in 1986. The right part, now in the collection of the Mordovian Museum of Fine Arts, depicts a portrait of an Erzya woman in the same manner. The image fits into the aesthetics of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when artists were in search of new expressive means for their creative experiments. The artists studied the art of previous decades, appealing to the traditions of the Renaissance, Classicism as well as national motifs.
The piece is of a lyrical and confessional tone. The composition of the painting is simple and clear, but it contains deep philosophical meaning. In the center of the painting there is a female figure accentuated with bright colors against a landscape background. Following formally the realistic tradition, the artist recreates an image, the symbolism of which is underpinned by the conventionality of landscape and details. The eternal mystery is embodied in the protagonist, who, like Mona Lisa, came down from a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, reincarnated centuries later in the image of a Moksha woman on the background of the Volga expanses.
Viktor Ivanovich Vechkanov designs a stylized headdress, which also refers the viewer to the intricate Renaissance headwear. The stylization is based on the Moksha tradition of wearing two headscarves, the upper and the lower ones. On the one hand, we see a symbol of beauty beyond time and space, on the other hand, it is the beauty of our time, which is emphasized by the contrast with everyday working life, depicted in the central part of the triptych “On the Threshing Floor”.
