{"id":14453,"date":"2019-02-17T05:34:29","date_gmt":"2019-02-17T05:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kvartiras.com\/?p=14453"},"modified":"2020-06-15T15:42:18","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T15:42:18","slug":"historybyrenatsemenov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kvartiras.com\/en\/historybyrenatsemenov\/","title":{"rendered":"Stories of Paintings by Renat Semenov"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Artist<\/h3>\n
\n\t

Gallery artist Renat Semenov<\/a>, Member of the Union of Artists of Russia since 2000. He has taken part in nationwide and regional art exhibitions. His first solo exhibition was held in Beijing (1995); the most recent one, in Abakan (\u201cStrange Dreams of Miguel D., 2017\u201d). His paintings and graphic works are held in private collections in Russia, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
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\nRenat tells the gallery \"Kvartira S\" about his works of art.<\/p>\n

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ADORATION OF THE MAGI 110 000\u20bd 150\u00d7140 cm, oil on canvas, 2018 Artist: Renat Semenov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS 115 000\u20bd 166\u00d7140 cm, oil on canvas, 2018 Artist: Renat Semenov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAdoration of the Magi\u201d<\/strong>, like \u201cAdoration of the Shepherds\u201d<\/strong>, is among the central subjects of Renaissance painting \u2014 today, sadly, almost vanished from the view of secular artists. \u201cAdoration\u201d is by no means an illustration; it is a confession of faith. The history of humankind is Christocentric, and its principal events should be spoken of through signs; therefore the main field of the diptych is fairly abstract, and only the central figures are free of distortion. The same holds true at the level of being: only what is sacred has weight; everything else is a scheme, an abstraction.
\nIn childhood everyone was captivated by the illusion created by a kaleidoscope\u2019s mirrors: turning it sets every part in motion, and so the picture is constantly changing. Our world, too, is a kaleidoscope, and as long as the earth turns, life will never tire of changing.<\/p>\n

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THE FIRST MORNING OF THE WORLD 120 000\u20bd 164\u00d7144 cm, oil on canvas, 2018 Artist: Renat Semenov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe First Morning of the World\u201d<\/strong> is the very beginning of the earth, the peak of its fullness, when decay had not yet touched its diamond facets. As all the colors of the spectrum fit into a drop of water pierced by light, so the earth itself, like a giant drop, accumulated within it the creative power of the Eternal. The painting\u2019s title carries an allusion to the film \u201cTous les matins du monde\u201d (dir. Alain Corneau).<\/p>\n

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LAND OF THE LAZY 120 000\u20bd 171\u00d7146 cm, oil on canvas, 2018 Artist: Renat Semenov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cLand of the Lazy\u201d <\/strong>is as if Bruegel the Elder had lived in Russia. We are by no means a lazy country; it is simply that our notion of needs and comfort is somewhat different \u2014 or at least it once was. We can build a great country and walk about in a sack with slits for the arms. We could create masterpieces and live wherever we happened to be, a pebble under our head. That is why the \u201clazy ones\u201d in the painting are rather active and endearing: they are our own people, carried by their own fancy into a land of milk and honey. Bread in Russia has never come free, so the dream of paradise on earth has always nourished us no less than bread itself.
\nThe human world is fragile; sometimes it takes years to build a relationship, and a single word, one false phrase, can bring it down. We raise towers of Babel, then fear to come down again. We believe in strength, and there is never enough of it.<\/p>\n

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GLASS CITY 110 000\u20bd 150\u00d7140 cm, oil on canvas, 2018 Artist: Renat Semenov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cGlass City\u201d<\/strong> is like blue-green layers of glass, where people and reflections, fantasies and reality grow into one another. The painting is about how things really are: how much we deceive ourselves, pressed down by gravity and by our own experience. The world is not what it seems; it is more complex and more vulnerable, and for that reason needs our protection, as a beautiful Christmas ornament needs a layer of cotton wool, the warmth of a hand\u2026<\/p>\n

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ANDALUSIA 120 000\u20bd 171\u00d7146 cm, oil on canvas, 2018 Artist: Renat Semenov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAndalusia\u201d<\/strong> carries an allusion to Spain, to the Moorish style. Yellow and black intertwine in it like a blinding sun and impenetrable night. Black is the color of a monastic habit; yellow \u2014 gold and lemon: somewhere at the junction of faith and passion a unique sound is born. It is a heart that is at once both sword and bell.<\/p>\n

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BEYOND THE EDGE OF SLEEP 110 000\u20bd 122\u00d7141 cm, oil on canvas, 2018 Artist: Renat Semenov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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CROSS RHYTHMS 110 000\u20bd 122\u00d7141 cm, oil on canvas, 2018 Artist: Renat Semenov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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SILVER OF THE ROADS 110 000\u20bd 122\u00d7141 cm, oil on canvas, 2018 Artist: Renat Semenov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBeyond the Edge of Sleep\u201d<\/strong>, \u201cCross Rhythms,\u201d \u201cSilver of the Roads\u201d<\/strong> are paintings that, oddly enough, were born under the influence of old Spanish painting and of illustrations by medieval illuminators, who combined Byzantine stylistics with the bright conventionality of Eastern miniature. The paintings unite both traditions; they are abstract and narrative at once \u2014 like dreams, like the fragmentary clarity of a glance caught in the window of a rushing train.<\/p>\n

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HEAVENLY BATTLE 120 000\u20bd 165\u00d7120 cm, oil on canvas, 2018 Artist: Renat Semenov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHeavenly Battle\u201d<\/strong> has a biblical foundation: it shows the struggle of angels and dark forces before the latter\u2019s fall. One of the most widespread subjects of the Middle Ages is now rarely found on the canvases of contemporary artists, who cannot withstand comparison with the epics of the past. In \u201cHeavenly Battle\u201d evil is blurred and has no concrete features; the angels merge into a quivering cloud of light, yet we can still make out details: weapons, the decoration of plumage. There is no point competing with the ingenuity of Bruegel, the gigantism of Michelangelo, of William Blake. Nevertheless, the artist created his work with an eye to them \u2014 understanding that the grandeur of the conception can give abstract form the volume of a clear and powerful statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gallery artist Renat Semenov, Member of the Union of Artists of Russia since 2000. He has taken part in nationwide and regional art exhibitions. His first solo exhibition was held in Beijing (1995); the most recent one, in Abakan (\u201cStrange Dreams of Miguel D., 2017\u201d). His paintings and graphic works are held in private collections […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kvartiras.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kvartiras.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kvartiras.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kvartiras.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kvartiras.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kvartiras.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kvartiras.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kvartiras.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kvartiras.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kvartiras.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}