The new exhibition at the In artibus Foundation is a retrospective of the Moscow artist Viktor Nikolayevich Razgulin, which includes about 60 paintings and graphic works from the 1960s – 2018 from the collection of Inna Bazhenova, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum and private collections.
Viktor Razgulin (b. 1948) is an artist of exceptionally successful creative destiny. All his professional troubles ended in 1974, with admission to the Leningrad Art College named after V. Serov, where the applicant-artist was not accepted for several years – he did not like the courage and too bright view of painting. Then everything was fine: recognition in Leningrad left–wing art associations, work in Moscow, creative commissions, exhibitions – group, and eventually personal, international exhibitions, membership in the Russian Academy of Arts, awards, titles, articles and albums, the love of collectors – Moscow, St. Petersburg, American, Dutch, French, Swiss, Japanese, Chinese – scientists, politicians, art historians and businessmen. The first work in Inna Bazhenova’s collection was a painting by Viktor Razgulin, since then he has been one of the favorite artists of the founder of the In artibus Foundation.
The State Tretyakov Gallery acquired his works in the late 80s, followed by the Russian Museum and regional museums – Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum, Yaroslavl Art Museum, Novosibirsk State Art Museum, Vologda Regional Art Gallery and others.
Razgulin’s painting is very recognizable: bright colors, large format, characteristic artfully simple-minded imagery, either Russian-folk, Gorodets roots (the artist was born in the ancient city of Gorodets on the Volga bank), or a sublime primitive in the spirit of Henri Matisse and his Fauvist friends. He works with themes common to classical art – portrait in the interior and landscape. The secret of the charm of Razgulinsky painting lies in its complexity and layering. She is friendly to the laymen who see in her works lyrical pictures of the Russian winter, the joyful flowering of the Crimean springs and family scenes dear to the heart; but she is on an equal footing with professionals – she does not let people talk down about herself. Experts see Razgulin as a master – an exact designer of the picturesque space, a colorist, a painter of the European, mainly French tradition.
