Vladimir Weisberg

V.G. Weisberg. Zhivopis', akvarel', risunok, Moscow: Gendalf, 1994, p.126, no.441 listed

In the 1970s Weisberg adopts a new system of painting. If in his pictures from the previous decade the influence of the Russian and Western European avant-garde such as the Jack of Diamonds group is obvious, then from this point onwards his work loses any resemblances with that of his contemporaries as well as his predecessors. He chooses a unique and inimitable artistic language, based on the idea of absolute harmony, which the artist does not try to find in nature, but creates on canvas. The representational qualities of his paintings become secondary. Already in the 1960s he had laid out his stance on figurative painting in the lecture The Classification of the Main Types of Colour Perception: ‘We see the object because our vision is imperfect. With perfect vision we see harmony, and don’t notice the object’ (quoted in E. Khlopina, Vliublennyi v klassicheskoe iskusstvo. Zhivopis’ V.G. Weisberga v traditsii kolorizma, Moscow: SBM-galereya, 2009, p.263).

Harmony in Weisberg’s painting means an ideal form, an ideal composition, the absence of colour contrasts, which are built into the motif, the merging of shape and space, and above all the harmony of colours. In this Weisberg is a true artist of the second half of the 20^th century, when painters embarked on the path of abstraction, experimentation and freedom of self-expression. Contrary to his Western contemporaries however, Weisberg does not break with tradition, above all because he stays faithful to plein-air painting. The process of creation is for him not some theoretical game, but a process based on the experience of direct observation of nature, with the aim to build a complex and balanced system of colour relationships. The artist, just like Claude Monet in his late work, paints the air and light, immaterial substances, using subtle gradations and transitions, nuances of colour hardly visible which he built up using the finest glazes. As a result, just like Monet’s late works, when seen up-close Weisberg’s paintings look flat, and when moving away an endless space appears, in which the figures are placed.

In 1972 Weisberg was given his first studio in Izmailovo by the Union of Artists. The studio was a small room with a skylight, which the artist did not like, because the sunlight entered the room at a right angle, and he preferred diffused lighting. Weisberg would get to his studio in the afternoon, after working in his Arbat studio. In Izmailovo he would paint nudes and portraits, and in the Arbat studio only still lifes. Because of this division there are more nudes and portraits in Weisberg’s oeuvre of the 1970s than there were in the previous decade.

The nude is for Weisberg at the same time a sensual plein-air motif and the formation of ideal harmony, an idea which is central to his mature work. He told his students: ‘The nude is geometrically and mathematically ideal and at the same time incorporates itself into the infinite space, without any fractions’ (A.Muratova, ‘Khudozhnik Vladimir Weisberg’, Nashe nasledie, no.55, 2000, p.153).

The composition of the present work is flawless, the figure is harmonically positioned in space. There is no conflict between space and form, the soft lines are without sharp angles and create a uniform rhythm. During this period Weisberg pays more attention to the problem of how volume relates to and fits into space. Following the logic of architecture, the most distinct line is the contour where the body meets the plane on which the model lies. The other contours are less sharp, melting into the light and air, the emptiness through which the canvas weave is visible. Weisberg’s technique also changes during this period. He starts to paint with thin, semi-transparent glazes, avoiding any impasto. He often removes paint with the palette knife and uses soft red sable hair brushes. The form loses the sense of materiality, as does the surface of the painting. The painting starts to be perceived as infinite space penetrated by light and filled with air.

We are grateful to Dr Elena Khlopina for providing this catalogue note.