Kuznetsov is the most legendary figure in the history of contemporary Russian art, he embraces and depicts nature with great enthusiasm, and soothes people's hearts with peace and warmth, and is a landscape painter with great lyrical and romantic characteristics. He liked to meditate like a philosopher, and had a gentle and quiet personality. He lived in isolation, had little contact with people, lived in seclusion in the Altai Forest for more than 15 years, and his works were otherworldly and unique, which the Russian Academy of Art called "contemporary Shishkin".
Kuznetsov is indeed legendary, in the winter night of 1964, in the cold Siberian wind, a hurried female college student's foot was tripped by a package, a baby boy who was abandoned at birth, and no one knew where he came from, who his parents were, and why he abandoned him. The first three months of the baby boy were spent on the balcony of the female university dormitory, and the female students took turns caring for him until they found a family willing to adopt him and named him Kuznetsov.
Kuznetsov loved to draw from an early age and showed great talent, when kuznetsov's primary school was renovated at the age of twelve, he volunteered to ask the teacher for paint and tools, and the teacher jokingly said, "The canteen is handed over to you." One day, the teacher walked into the canteen and, in amazement, called his parents, the canteen murals and decorations were basically completed, everywhere beautiful, his parents could not believe how the 12-year-old child could do these tasks independently without professional training and education, and quickly made the decision to let him enter the art school.
"Warm Evening"
He graduated from the New Orleans Academy of Arts under the tutelage of I. Khirulinov, an academy that from the very beginning had a strong teaching team, a high degree of professionalism, and preserved the best traditions of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts. Because his painting style was very different from others, he attracted a large audience, and as his influence expanded, in the circles of artists and admirers, everyone affectionately called him "Altai's Shishkin".
In the second half of the 19th century, western European and Russian landscape painters were brilliant and masters. Beginning with the lyrical landscape paintings laid by Savrasov, world-class giants such as Shishkin, Kuyinzhi, and Levitan emerged. It also had a profound impact on landscape painting in Russia and around the world, which researchers call "lyrical landscape art."
More than 100 years later, one of the masters who made a great contribution to the development of the lyrical landscape was Kuznetsov Nikolaevich. His creations reflect the epic power of Altai nature, but also the artist's philosophical reflections on the beauty of primitive nature. His work "Dragon's Teeth" made the whole city uneasy when it was a sensation; when he lived in seclusion in the Altai Forest, he made the audience wait for 15 years.
Dragon's Teeth
The Altai has hundreds of rivers and lakes, characterized by rivers carved by mountains and valleys, mountain streams, rapids, huge faults, and endless virgin forests. The Altai Mountains are considered the edge of pristine nature, and their mystery gives the feeling of pristine existence. Kuznetsov lingered here all day, lost in reverie and contemplation. He is looking for special emotions to communicate with nature and direct interaction with nature. The works he created during this period contained the emotions of the Creator and were essentially mirrors of his soul.
"Moonlit Night"
Experts call this art form a unique "spiritual landscape" and a new complement to lyrical landscape painting. Kuznetsov, the founder of this art form, will inevitably be recorded in the annals of Russian art history.
Commissioned by the Russian Academy of Art, Silent Night, he studied the similarities and differences between him and the pictorial layers and artistic effects of Savrasov's famous painting Sokolnik's Moose Island, in which Kuznetsov created the most subtle gradients of peaks, rivers, pine trees, clouds, the sky and atmospheric colors with keen observation and inner harmony. The state of the sky and water is conveyed through the artist's amazing sense of color.
Silent Night
Katuny
Katuny offers a genius solution to how to harmoniously combine the contrast of the first picture with the soft background of the skyline. The artist had a special sense of the line; he often painted the horizon very low to accentuate the proportions of the trees, with rose-colored skies, ridges, and high shores against the background.
If we talk about the emotional fullness of Kuznetsov's landscape paintings, the narration from the author's mouth is the most interesting: "The Ob River occupies a special place in creation, and her image is associated with sleeping clouds, sleeping rivers. "Clouds, Ob River" – The moon looks behind the sleeping clouds as if singing a lullaby. A state of tranquility and serenity...
"Cloud Ob River"
In the work of "Noon After a Thunderstorm", contrary to the night he depicts, the fury of the sky, the contrast of light and shadow, the contrast of coastline - left steep and right low... The basis of this painting is "Akaturus - Song of the Morning", the energy of nature brings people a reverie and contemplation of healing, and the shadow part of the sky brings super expressiveness...
"Noon After a Thunderstorm"
A deep understanding of nature, as well as the artistic power to reveal nature's secrets, gives his work an immersive, immersive experience. "Night Water" You can feel the magic and beauty of nature, as if entering a fairyland, evoking beautiful memories that exist in your mind and cannot be depicted, comforting the soul of the viewer with dream-like colors and hidden mysterious energy, and letting all uneasy emotions be vented...
"Night Water"
In The Night at Jinfan Lake, the fantasy and fairytale feel becomes stronger and increases the energy and depth of the painting, and the tone of the night is thick and looks velvety and silky.
"Night at Jinfan Lake"
Kuznetsov's painting style differs both from the majestic solemnity of Shishkin, from the fairytale colors of Kuynzhi and the poetic lyricism of Leviathan. Using "realistic scenery" cannot summarize its characteristics, and using "beautiful poetry" cannot reflect its wind and bones. He established a unique way of talking and communicating with nature, making his paintings highly performative, and building a medium, a platform, through his paintings, people realized spiritual communication with nature.
Kuznetsov's professionalism aroused great interest among collectors in his time. In 2007, Russian philanthropist and collector Sergei Khachatulyan held exhibitions of artists' works in several German cities, and Professor Eylert E. Acher, an expert in modern art identification at Sotheby's, hoped to auction Kuznetsov's works in the contemporary art section of Sotheby's auction house, but Khachaturyan rejected the proposal that Russia's greatest works of art should be kept in the Russian National Museum.
In general, Kuznetsov's creation speaks eloquently about the artistic worldview: his worldview is a picture of nature, admirable and magnificent. He is like an angel with a mission, pure, warm and touching people's hearts.
The article is excerpted from the Olga Zotova Russian Academy of Arts