Illarion Golitsyn. Painting, graphic art, and sculpture from the Russian Museum collection

This exhibition introduces the oeuvre of the Moscow artist Illarion Golitsyn, whose works have been acquired for the Russian Museum collection over dozens of years. The selected works allow visitors to see not only the permanent character of the artist's inner theme, but also the integrity of his worldview and the unity of the creative person, the qualities which are rarely found in the contemporary art. The exhibition includes 12 paintings, 15 engravings, 15 drawings, and 2 sculptures. Illarion Golitsyn was born in Moscow in 1928, but in three years, after his father was arrested, the artist's family moved to the city of Dmitrov. In 1946-1953, Illarion Golitsyn attended the Moscow High School of Art and Industry; in 1957 studied the technique of etching in I.I.Nivinsky studio; from 1950 he followed the advice of Vladimir Favorsky and Ivan Yefimov. The last date is crucial — Illarion Golitsyn came to the famous red house in Novogireyevskaya street, to the inmost "nest" where traditions of the Russian art culture had been preserved despite the epoch. In the 1960s Illarion Golitsyn works with linocut and woodcut. The artist's lyric gift found perfect form of expression — his linocuts are pierced by the light that dissolves the unnecessary details. He masterly uses classical methods ("black on white" and "white on black"), constantly changes their places so the image is now strengthened by the powerful line and then is weakened. Such are the best engravings of the artist pertaining to the epoch of the "austere style", become his most poetic embodiment. In the 1970s Illarion Golitsyn is mainly interested in drawing. It was then that everyone got somewhat tired of open "manege" form oriented to big exhibition rooms, and the "quiet graphic art" appeared which emphasized new features in graphic art. It turned out, that Golitsyn?s drawings easily and naturally respond to the quiet appeal of time. In the 1980s-90s the artist preferred watercolours and painting. Colour spectrum was mainly defined by favourite subjects: interior designs and portraits, concerned with a subject of historical memory.