Talking about the Still Life with a Mortar by Alexander Petukhov, it’s hard to make a certain depictive or analytical description of this work. Many things, such as an extraordinary and authentic talent, an artistic method and knowledge of different art techniques got mixed up in the painter’s art. The painter tragically died at the age of 36 while saving his drowning son, but he still stands out as a comet in the trans-Uralian art sky.
Alexander Petukhov left a very serious and various graphic and pictorial heritage. Having graduated from the Sverdlovsk Art College in 1963, he twisted his fortune and creative career with Kurgan. His talent was on full display not only in the watercolour technique, where he accomplished a lot, but also in the oil and tempera paintings.
The painting Srill Life with a Mortar was made in the last period of the painter’s art and is one of his best works. Alexander Petukhov was never afraid of thoughtful and philosophical themes, that’s why the still life genre holds a special place in his art. Through the simple and clear objects the artist could covertly disclose the problems troubling his soul or pose important questions.
This still life was painted in 1974. It’s a painting designed for a long and meditative contemplation. It contains nothing that could trigger a sharp reaction and looks more like a parable. The simple habitual objects of the peasant’s everyday life such as a big wooden mortar, a sickle, a washstand, half loaf of the brown bread are kind of forgotten by someone from the past. It’s not at once that the glance stops at the image of a foal in the blue space of an open window. The artist remarkably combined the texture of the objects with the general depersonalization. Grey and ochroid palette dives us into our own past as if we’re looking at an old photo. The inexplicable feeling of irrevocable and unrecoverable rests on everything. Only a towel with touches of red ornament, blatantly put on the table, tells about the still life’s staging. The painting turns into the requiem for the old sure things, which served to many generations and warmed the people with their coziness. It’s especially touching that the artist placed a foal, the one who used to go side by side with a peasant for the centuries, into the open window. It’s a contemplation on the subject of traditions, change of years and generations.
Many of Petukhov’s contemporaries told about him as an extraordinary author. During the collective exhibitions nobody wanted to exhibit their works around his in order to not appear in the shadow of his canvases. Petukhov’s paintings are still the unsolved messages, and his art is still as fresh as in the 1970s.
Alexander Petukhov left a very serious and various graphic and pictorial heritage. Having graduated from the Sverdlovsk Art College in 1963, he twisted his fortune and creative career with Kurgan. His talent was on full display not only in the watercolour technique, where he accomplished a lot, but also in the oil and tempera paintings.
The painting Srill Life with a Mortar was made in the last period of the painter’s art and is one of his best works. Alexander Petukhov was never afraid of thoughtful and philosophical themes, that’s why the still life genre holds a special place in his art. Through the simple and clear objects the artist could covertly disclose the problems troubling his soul or pose important questions.
This still life was painted in 1974. It’s a painting designed for a long and meditative contemplation. It contains nothing that could trigger a sharp reaction and looks more like a parable. The simple habitual objects of the peasant’s everyday life such as a big wooden mortar, a sickle, a washstand, half loaf of the brown bread are kind of forgotten by someone from the past. It’s not at once that the glance stops at the image of a foal in the blue space of an open window. The artist remarkably combined the texture of the objects with the general depersonalization. Grey and ochroid palette dives us into our own past as if we’re looking at an old photo. The inexplicable feeling of irrevocable and unrecoverable rests on everything. Only a towel with touches of red ornament, blatantly put on the table, tells about the still life’s staging. The painting turns into the requiem for the old sure things, which served to many generations and warmed the people with their coziness. It’s especially touching that the artist placed a foal, the one who used to go side by side with a peasant for the centuries, into the open window. It’s a contemplation on the subject of traditions, change of years and generations.
Many of Petukhov’s contemporaries told about him as an extraordinary author. During the collective exhibitions nobody wanted to exhibit their works around his in order to not appear in the shadow of his canvases. Petukhov’s paintings are still the unsolved messages, and his art is still as fresh as in the 1970s.
