The Story of Korenev
1946 born in the family of a serviceman. His father, Vasily was a military man, worked in the postwar years in the Army, the Ministry of Defense, with the rank of colonel. His mother, Nina was a pharmacist by profession. His parents met at the front during the First World War.Vladimir childhood developed an interest in creativity, he studied in a special art school, where he graduated with honors. His father wantedVladimir to take technical education, because he thought that the eldest son should continue his father’s footsteps.Vladimir graduated from the Moscow Institute of Communications with honors and handed a diploma to his father with a sense of accomplishment. Soon he got a job as a graphic artist in a publishing house “High School”. Foreign fiction, textbooks, designed byVladimir is held in the archives of the publishing house. In the 80s Korenev Vladimir became a member of the International Federation of Artists and graphics.
Paintings and drawings have always been the most important thing for Vladimir. He possessed encyclopedic knowledge of art and culture, visited various exhibitions and participated in master classes, was an admirer of Picasso, Miro, Dali, Bosch, Van Gogh. Volodya assembled a remarkable collection of books and art albums. In Chistie Prudy, in the studio of Oleg Tselkov, there were evenings of creativity and professional disputes, which Vladimir liked to visit. Exhibition activity began in the 80s. The process of creativity afforded the author a lot of fun, but Vladimir didn’t hurry to show his works. He believed that the confession of the artist can’t be understood by everyone.
The most favorite place forVladimir was the Crime’s Alupka, which he visited every summer. There he wrote sketches, made photos and more than that, he travelled on foot, and during those trips there were probably images for his new works.
The artist’s life was difficult, he didn’t find his lady. The woman in his view – was beauty, wisdom and brilliance. He liked the Slavic beauty with blond long hair, with a beautiful smile and sparkling eyes. Korenev was very fond of his brother Anatoly, always helped him. In recent years, he lived with his family, his wife and daughter. A lot of time he devoted to his niece, helped her to study literature and painting, often spoiled with presents.
Korenev - was a holiday-man. Epatage gave him extraordinary pleasure. Hats with flowers of beats, a sweater with a self-portrait, the Cossacks- these things dominated the artist’s wardrobe. He had an incredible sense of fashion ahead of trends. Once he shaved his head, in 5 years it was the fashion for skinheads. At the wedding of his brother, he was in a bright burgundy jacket, and after 6-7 years for the business suit it was the color was of priority. There can be a lot of such examples.
Korenev was an interesting person in communication: humor and tact, good manners and extensive knowledge-all this attracted to his personality. He sincerely believed in God and read the rules of orthodoxy, so in his behavior and lifestyles faith was the main site.
The creativity of Vladimir Korenev, his inspiring personality, mysteriousness, a totally unique world combining colors and lines, the dramaturgy of his pictures- an interesting event in the world of contemporary art.
His Work
In “Caprice”, the content of it is almost impossible to narrate; the piece exhibits rich layers of bright colours, geometric shapes, human and animal outlines, hands, legs, sexual organs, celestial symbols, and so on. These elements are tiered together, intertwined, split up, and then connected in an aesthetically incredible manner. We can vaguely make out the abstract creatures present inVladimir’s paintings, which prove difficult to recognize due to their unusual form.
Image can be divided into two parts, the foreground and background. A form seems like woman’s body, standing at the center of the foreground, opens her hands, as if welcoming us get into their party, and she was surrounded by many bizarre creatures，which are very fascinating. It seems only some local lines flowing in the background, but when seen from afar, you will find a lying female body and a man depicted at the top of the picture, on the upper right and lower left, there are people staring at the viewers, the composition is rather complex. The viewer will notice that the artist subtly interspersed his paintings with totem-like characters painted with unique patterns, which appear to be floating mysteriously in space. These characters are meant to be admired without haste; they are manifestations of metaphysical concepts and cannot be revealed to the viewer all at once.
The amazing creative capacity of Vladimir Korenev, along with his mysterious and inspiring personality, contribute to his masterpieces, which embody a world of colours and lines. As viewers, we can follow the artist’s talent and intuition while trying to comprehend the treasures he has left to us. Works of Korenev were exhibited in theUnited Kingdom, the Czech Republic and Poland.
In honour of Vladimir Korenev
Star Rover
Vladimir Korenev`s name (1946-1999) isn’t known to everyone but it doesn’t mean anything- fame, glory, monographs are still ahead. Prior to his sudden, absurd death (accident in the south), the artist worked in the Moscow publishing house «High School», illustrating foreign literature. He was frequently been exhibited in group shows and he always acted on his own.
By means of relatives and friends his artistic legacy is only now beginning to emerge, like an iceberg, the bulk of which was hidden until now. This is more than 400 paintings as well as drawings and sketches. If all of them once could be put together in a single and well composed exhibition, we would see a strange, mysterious world, probably peeped in some unknown dimensions or spaces, and fixed on canvas. The fact that there are parallel worlds, not intersecting with ours and inaccessible for poor human feelings, humanity guessed long ago, even in the times of Plato and Pythagoras, and even earlier.
For many centuries poets, artists, musicians have tried their “second sight” to see them, to penetrate the unknown line. Everyone knows the capacious formula of the famous Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov: «Dear friend, or don’t you see/ That all that’s seen by us/Is just a reflection, only the shadow/From sight unseen…/» Among our contemporaries the most interesting attempts to breakthrough had been made by «informal» Igor Snegur and Yuri Mironov of the 1970s. Now they are joined by the name of Vladimir Korenev.
His creative work doesn’t fit into any of the modern trends. This is surrealism, and abstract, and metaphysical paintings, and God knows what else, plus something special, it’s korenevalism. The term “fantastic realism” would fit best of all.
The content of Vladimir`s works is almost impossible to describe. This is a thick boiling spot of color, geometric shapes, human and animal outlines, faces, hands, legs, eyes, hearts, celestial symbols, etc. All this is layered on each other, intertwined in an incredible way, split up, connected. It mutually flows, rushes off into chaos. However, a careful examination reveals that this chaos only seems and each leaf is well considered, sense and color poles are skillfully emphasized, and in addition to an idea which lies on the surface, there is a super-idea as well. The one that brings a lot of canvases in a single whole – the reproduction of fantastic worlds, supernatural or parallel, call it the way you want.
Korenev`s creative work isn’t isolated from global and domestic art, it has thousands of threads associated with the spiritual treasures accumulated by the mankind. But its transcript is rather complicated. I’d like to suggest one, not an indisputable one, which may help to open at least some semantic lines.
The key is the book of the Russian writer and philosopher Daniel Andreyev / 1906-1959 / “Peace Rose” and grand theodicy “Divine Comedy” of the twentieth century, which is still not completely understood and evaluated. When Dante created his great task let the sad exile, but at least at large,then our contemporary, the son of the famous writer Leonid Andreyev, wrote in conditions of Stalin’s camps – in the decaying barracks, with difficulty hiding handwritten leaflets during numerous searches. In bold, often beyond everyday mind visions the author reconstructs a gigantic panorama of the limitless and multilayered universe, involving many coexisting worlds, possessing, in contrast to our three-dimensional and simultaneous physical layer (It’s called Enrofom), a huge variety of spatial and temporal coordinates. All of them are apartments of an infinite number of monads – indivisible spiritual units, diverse in their vestments of material and ways of life.
The author describes the grand age-old struggle of universe Good and Evil, and, as Dante once – ascending the ranks of the worlds leading human souls to bliss, and “Worlds of retaliation, where sinful souls and criminals pay great. Mighty imagination paints pictures of heavenly cities built by the heroes, geniuses, saints, including “Heavenly Russia” shining by “unearthly unearthly gold and white, and opposing them underground shrastry – the centre of demonic mankind, his mighty strongholds, in one of which there is Navna – perfect cathedral soul of Russian people.
A philosophical treatise can be illustrated. I don`t know whether Vladimir Korenev was familiar with Andreev`s book, but anyhow he managed to see the world the worlds, described in the «Rose of the world», and to reflect them in colors and images. And finally, it`s not necessary to believe in Andreev`s constructions, although there are whole societies of his name, considering «The Rose of Peace» as a new syncretic religion, but you can use them to describe the creative work of a talented artist. It is a very fruitful method. Again, there may be other interpretations.
Deliberately I don`t cite any specific pictures, the author called them at will or sometimes left unnamed. One thing is clear: the work on such deciphering the complex spiritual phenomenon as Vladimir Korenev`s work is still ahead.
The author is already «there» and he personally could check whether and how far he portrayed. All we have is to believe his intuition and talent and humbly try to master the wealth he left to us…
Journalist and arts critic Oleg Torchinskiy
Major Exhibitions
1982- Member of Moscow Artists’ Federation.
1984- Central House of Artist, group exhibition.
1985- Belgium, art-gallery <Elle>, exhibition of artists.
1986- publishing house <High school>
1988- Central House of Artist, group exhibition.
1990- House of Culture <Lira>, Moscow. Graphics and paintings.
1992- House of Art, Yalta.
1998- Central House of Artist, group exhibition of graphics.
Publications about Vladimir Korenev:
2004: Exhibition catalogue
<Art– Kiselev> Gallery(Tverskaya, 9)
2004: Catalogue
International fair of modern art <On the wall>
London (Olympic Grand Hall)
2004: Internet-magazine <Moscow painters>
”In memory of…”
2005: Newspaper <Gallery of Fine arts>
“Travelling to other worlds” Article by Oleg Torchinskiy, journalist and art critic
2006: Magazine <Radius of Moscow>
“A person who left a smile”
Article by Alena Mihailova, journalist
2007: Almanac-catalogue <Art>
Article by <Gella-Print>, Publishing House
弗拉基米爾﹒ 哥尼洛夫在1946年生於一個軍人家庭，1999年在俄羅斯南面不幸意外身亡。哥尼洛夫的作品以大膽的用色與構圖繁複仔細顯著，作品屬超現實主義風格，描寫畫家內在的追求及思索，畫面除帶有狂歡般的嬉鬧感，亦甚具思考性。他經常在作品裏探討許多哲學問題，如人的存在問題，人生意義，對創作的看法，以及對未來世界的期盼。
在《狂想曲》中，作品的内容是一言難盡的，它不但展現了色彩豐富的層次，還描繪了千變萬化的幾何圖狀、人和動物的輪廓、手、腳、性器官、天文符號等等，這些元素交織著，然後分裂，再以驚人的美學方式緊湊地結合一起，觀者可以依稀地看出這些抽象的傢伙，但卻難以從其異常的形態識別確實的身份。視覺上畫面可分爲兩部份，前景及背景。前景中央站立了一個仿似女性的身軀，張開著雙手，彷彿迎接著我們進入它們的派對，周圍佈滿了奇形怪狀的生物，別具趣味。背景局部看來只像是流動的線條，但遠看時，會發現上方描繪了一個背趴著的女性銅體和一個躺臥著的人，右上方和左下方則有人凝視著觀者，構圖相當繁複。這些圖騰般的符號彼此穿插，配以獨特的花樣，隱約地漂浮在神秘的空間，它們需要慢慢細賞，並且不會一下子顯露出來，是形而上學的概念表現。
弗拉基米爾﹒ 哥尼洛夫驚人的創造能力，隨著他神秘和啟發靈感的個性，有助於他創作那些充滿動人色彩和線條的異想世界。而作爲觀者，我們可嘗試按照哥尼洛夫的才華和直覺理解他的傑作。其作品曾於英國、波蘭和捷克共和國展出。
