ANIMAL GRACE
September, 1st – December, 31st
Over 30 works made from bronze, stone and porcelain – these are not only a procession of vivid images, but it is also an evidence of constant search — a part of his career 30 years long.
This is the first time when a personal exhibition of Vitaly Vargachev, included over 30 works made from bronze, stone and porcelain, designed during the latest 30 years, takes place in the Gallery.
Judging by emotional intension and image emphasis, and by variety of plastic solution, these works refer to the best examples of animal sculpture in Russia.
Thrown himself into animalistic style, Vitaly Vargachev does not lose gift of immediacy and novelty with the passing of the years. Working from nature only, he is constantly learning from animals. That is why he is known and loved in zoos of Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Tallinn, Volokolamsk and Antwerpen.
One of his main works is called «Truth about Cheetah», and according to this work we can see that so called truthfulness for the artist is not naturalism. The exhibition of Vargachev’s sculptures is a real portrait gallery: through the appearance of an animal, its manner and specific, unparalleled grace of a predator we can see the talent of implementation of vivacity and every characteristic’s exquisiteness.
Extremely successful plastic finding of the author is a composition opening an exhibition, «A Scared Bear». How often does a city dweller with stereotypic thinking imagine a bear in such way – jumping for escape, but not an attack? The moment itself is filled with a feeling of two-edged danger, unexpectedness, but the bear is the main character here, and it is its escape makes it flash-like, impetuous; and this very second the animal’s usual impressive heaviness appears easier than a windbreak crackling underfoot.
An artist always goes further of style frameworks. Each of characters is so interesting to the artist that in abstract form both animal plastic and strong psychologism of an image are seen and approve them even more clearly. Admiration, observation and the worship of the mysterious world of wildlife look like almost a sign in such works as «A Sight of a Rhinoceros», “An Animal with an Egg". But even abstract forms and associations are not born inspiredly, but they are born during long studies, sketches from nature, which also can be seen at the exhibition.
Sometimes it can be the other way round, the artist can tell many fascinating stories when he met one of his “friends" looking at abstract outlines of the stone while travelling. Thus a spectator needs a little to guess «The Head a She-orangutan» sculpture in ascetic, protogenic forms of a boulder, following an artist.
Sometimes it seems that according to Vitaly Vargachev an animal includes its whole world: to show environment or even universal picture of the nature the artist does not need leave the framework of animalistic style – he decorates birds’ and animals’ bodies with floral ornaments.
It is shown by a series of sculptures from porcelain: «A Saint Petersburg Cat» has bent like a humpbacked bridge, in its underglaze painting we can see both grand Petersburg and gloomy back streets of Dostoevsky's Petersburg spread before the eyes. In his work «Russian Pancake Week» panoramas of pancake carnivals and joyful pictures of a real Russian winter develop like a patchwork blanket on a small cow’s body. Here the sculptor shows not only temperament of characters, but also his relation to the world around, the way to conduct his dialogue with it.
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