Published in the Catalogue for the Exhibition ”The Inner Light“, 2002
Naturhistorisches Museum Wien
ISBN 3-900275-89-0
Sergey POPOLSIN
Talent, destiny, character - the features of life of which each one plays a certain role in a certain period of life. Dramatic changes of destiny, sorrow and happiness, mistakes and victories - endless trials which the artist Sergey Popolsin has to face. His character helps him to overcome them all.
The talent leads him, does not let him divert from what is important, what is the essence of his life - his paintings.
Dark glasses in the artist’s self portrait and finally his biography force one unwillingly to set a certain standard in ones judgements, to somehow set the tone of ones conversation... but then the pictures put everything again in the right perspective.
Energetic technique; colour which becomes a facture; relief like, plastic brush strokes; a slight touch of the brush on the canvas, careful but at the same time decisive; all speak for a unique talent, for a conformity with the way of thinking when painting.
Solid composition, the construction of the picture, the structure of shape and the mastery of space, which can still be felt behind the surface of the picture, are evidence of a good academic schooling, a well-founded knowledge of the technique and technology of painting.
The artist’s biography talks about the meeting of genuine teachers, of the study of the old masters with the help of a certain method which itself is “as old as the earth”, that is by copying the great works, combined with careful defining and studying their technological methods, starting with the priming of the canvas and finishing with putting on the layers of paint.
Through the development of his own, personal technique which is very complex and difficult to understand by others, the artist creates works with a remarkable feeling of agility and speed; this kind of painting by others would be described as “studies” or “sketches”. For Sergey, however, it is the principle which enables him to maintain the original, emotional impulse in each of his works.
Naturally, the special situation of the artist can also be felt in his compositions. One notices a certain excessive literal adherence to the subject, additionally underlined by the title of the picture, an unavoidably striving towards an unusual symbolic, towards generalisations: “She has gone...”, “My Carmen”, “Window”, etc.
His landscapes on the other hand leave deep impressions due to their finely balanced and diverse nuances of mood. The inner feeling for the colour is exactly that which normally does not let the hand and eye of the painter move freely. The attitude towards colour is like ones relation to a valuable object which only shows its worth in an exquisite frame - all that is not only a special talent but also the result of unbelievable hard work which, however, the viewer does not see.
In compositions with objects such as architecture, a flower or, for example, a samovar, the ability of the artist to depict both their decorative sense and the feel of their surface, their facture is astonishing. This emotional perception of their characteristics, this inner experience which can be felt in each composition gives the works of the painter such depth and diversity. Their undisguised decorative look changes into a very finely nuanced perception and experience. “Churchyard”, “Cave”, “Quiet little river”, townscapes - are all different in their execution and different in their meaning but they all have one essential thing in common: the viewer is given the opportunity of having a joint experience, of sharing the experience. It does not refer to the literary basis of the subject but to the moods and the conditions of nature or the urban areas which the artist depicts with such empathy, precision and effect.
The paintings of Sergey Popolsin confirm the simple truth on which every creative activity is based: it does not suffice simply to see, to hear and to know - one must feel with ones soul, ones heart and ones whole being.
Only then can one give to others.
Natalya YASULOVICH
Art Historian
Lecturer at the Russian Academy of
Dramatic Art RATI (formerly GITIS)
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