"Petroglyphs" exhibition
On 21 April 2015, 5 p. m., the House Museum of Marina Tsvetaeva saw the opening of the one-man exhibition of the works by Ivan Rytov (Giovanni) tilted “Petroglyphs”.
With this exhibition, the Creative Union of Professional Artists celebrates the 25th anniversary of the constant participant of its exhibitions – the talented artist nicknamed King Graphite.
Press Release
“PETROGLYPHS”
of artist GIOVANNI
Whoever speaks in primordial images speaks with a thousand voices..., he lifts the idea he is seeking to express out of the occasional and the transitory into the realm of the ever-enduring. He transmutes our personal destiny into the destiny of mankind...
CarlGustavJung
Some archetypes are related to the mental journey of the Artist to the primary times of his life: the Creator’s preexistent purpose, conception and birth. The Artist calls these times “the epoch of the King Graphite”, the main character of the well-known book. Times of King Graphite constantly send signals to the Artist’s consciousness. These signals, resembling sounds of a beautiful music, cover his whole life.
The archetype of the substance’s structure evokes images of the thick forest that has kept its primeval appearance untouched by the civilisation (or, speaking of an individual, by the upbringing) in the consciousness of the Artists. Musical signals of King Graphite are small islands of the primeval wood on the Artist’s way through the time. This archetype gives birth to the images of rock strata at the foot of the mountains untouched by the shovel of a miner. It is “great secrets” that Tolkien’s Sméagol hoped to find in the caves under the Misty Mountains, or strata of the Earth's crust crossed by Jules Verne’s characters during their journey to the center of the Earth. The Artist conceives the substance’s structure primarily as the nature of the material he uses to create his pictures. It includes the material’s chemical composition, its artistic features, as well as impression of interaction with it.
Seeking in his work to go the true way to the principia, the Artist tries not to hinder the material to speak for itself. He leaves blank areas of the background (such “cesurae” can be very eloquent), includes smooth blots of colour in the picture’s composition, makes wood fiber texture more prominent, cuts out bits of foil and sticks them on the board, alternate different techniques on the same picture, while each of them has some hidden meaning.Scratching is a striking example of material’s self-display. It enhances the effect of the board’s width and solidity and gives monumentality of a memorial plate or a sacral image to the picture. Though Tatami series of pictures was created under the influence of the Japanese art, it was not painting or architecture, but mainly poetry. Shortness and precision of a Japanese poem is an ideal basis for a work of art, where the leading part belongs to the material, not to the artist. Square boards of the same size for all the pictures make the spatial and architectural basis of the series.
The archetype of the routine reveals deep contradictions forming the basis for the theme of King Graphite. On the Artist’s works, the concept of the material poverty often transforms into the concept of the great value, the concept of lack of ideas — into the deep meaningfulness, the routine — into the great variety. All the ordered, meagre, pragmatic, calculated can secretly contain the Original Chaos, petrified at the World’s dawn in the wrinkles of mountain ridges and mats of thickets. The pictures of Petroglyphs series create the monuments to the pieces of the Artist’s life that is based on adversities, but brightened by the signs of beautiful memories. The routine is symbolised by means of inclusion of the text in the picture as a character equally valuable as an image. The meaning of these texts presents the most routine aspects of certain life periods — training materials, list of medicines, daily schedule. Letters scratched on the pictures show that the scratching process is the routine in itself. With patience and perseverance, the text is scratched with a nail, a chisel or a can-opener.
Exhibition
Before the opening
Opening
Nadezhda Fedotova, the Museum’s Director, is opening the exhibition.
Nadezhda Fedotova is wishing a happy birthday to Giovanni.
Academician Grigory Ginzburg is explaining everything that is unclear.
Everybody is listening attentively.
Grigory Ginzburg presents the book titled Artist Giovanni and King Graphite.
Dialogue between a fine arts expert and an artist.
Artist Ira Golub – on archetypes.
Artist Rufina Abasova is reading her poems.
