Bidspirit auction | Kharitonov A.V.

Kharitonov A.V. - Under the linden trees.. Technique:  Oil on canvas. Size:  35x35. Kharitonov Alexander Vasilievich (1932-1993). Born in Moscow. After the war, he attended a children's art school, but had to leave classes to earn money. He was mostly self-taught. He lived mainly in Moscow, as well as in the village of Zhelnino near Zagorsk (Sergiev Posad). He took part in the “other art” movement since 1958, when his first exhibition took place (at Moscow State University). He has shown his works at the City Committee of Graphic Artists since the “nonconformists” were granted (in 1975) the right to exhibit there. He uniquely combined the traditions of “naïve art” and symbolist vision painting (in the spirit of “Blue Rose”) with a dotted, pointillist style of painting, and later with reminiscences of medieval pearl embroidery. Among his paintings, two thematic groups stand out: fabulous, sometimes grotesque images of a certain romantic country, mostly earlier, and also romantic-fairy-tale, but going back to Christian iconography, paintings with miniature temples, figurines of angels and saints in a typical Central Russian landscape. In his early years, as well as in his later period, he often painted pure abstractions, in his last decade - with bright, sparkling colors, in which he sought to visually reproduce the music of Mozart and other favorite composers. He was also a virtuoso of drawing: for many years, using a simple pencil, he created thin silvery “lace” compositions - with the same religious symbolism in semi-fantastic landscapes. Kharitonov died in Moscow on February 5, 1993.