MOSCOW.- The Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents the solo exhibition of Nikita Makarov. A compelling and busy painter, he had graduated from the Surikov Art Institute and devoted himself since then to the exploration of the possibilities of landscape. He works in a very laborious technique, applying acrylic and tempera on specially primed wood panels, in a manner resembling icon painting. Equally, he employs the method of pointillé, which refers to the optical experiments of modernism. Among his works, large multi-part paintings coexist naturally with miniature-like pictures set within wide custom frames, designed to convey and enforce a sense of materiality.
The exhibition at MMOMA at Tverskoy Boulevard is conceived to become a space for contemplation and reflection on the passage of time. It includes urban and coastal views of Italy and France, Spain and Greece, as well as landscapes from the new series painted in Russia, in and around the ancient town of Pereslavl. Provided with topographically precise inscriptions on the front side, together they amount to a painted diary of observations, or a visual travelogue. The works are supplemented with the author’s photographs, which typically serve as a basis for the paintings, an audio guide recorded by him, and a number of special objects (instruments, curiosities, furniture, books), all of which contribute to the ambience of an imaginary home studio.
Makarov is attracted to the discreet beauty of the world – not the wild scenery, but a lived-in space, where urban culture permeates nature. His landscapes, whether a deserted European beach subsumed in evening twilight, or a snowy Russian city, resembling fairy-tale decorations, give an impression of strange, slightly delusory mise-en-scènes, frontier areas between a dream and everyday reality. In these pictures – seemingly calm, serene, and withdrawn from the contradictions of modern life – the artist holds an absorbing dialogue with the past. Interpreting the historically formed conventions of his preferred genre, he reveals, in his own way, the complex, existentially stressed image of the modern age.
Nikita Makarov was born in Moscow. In 2002, he graduated from the Moscow State Academic Art College in Memory of 1905, and in 2008, from the Surikov Moscow State Academic Art Institute (Evgeny Maksimov’s workshop of mural painting). Makarov is a member of the Moscow Union of Artists, the Union of Artists of Russia, and an associate member of the Russian Academy of Arts. He participated in numerous group exhibitions at various venues, including the Russian Academy of Arts, the Central House of Artists and the “Khudgraph” fair of graphic arts. Makarov’s solo exhibitions were held at the House Museum of Muravyov-Apostol, as well as galleries in Moscow, New York and other cities.
