FAMOUS ARTIST Alexander Znamenskiy
“I have always tried to make my works have a kind of“ second bottom ”. In my understanding, art is always multifaceted. To simplify it is to simplify thought. The truth, if it lies on the surface, is no longer the truth ” Alexander Znamenskiy
Alexander Znamensky is one of the most famous artists in the city of Sayansk, painter, graphic artist, sculptor, member of the Union of Artists of Russia.
– My life began far away, – Alexander Znamensky shares, – was born in Port Arthur. My father was a military man, my mother survived the blockade. My father once came on vacation, got married, and my parents left for China. 20 days after my birth, Port Arthur was given to China, and I was registered in Ussuriisk. We lived there for a year or two, went to live in Leningrad.
Seven kilometers from Leningrad, the father of the future artist was allocated a land plot on which a house was built. According to Alexander Znamensky, the place where the house was located was very picturesque, and in good weather all of Leningrad with its spiers and canals was visible at a glance, and on holidays you could watch fireworks from the window of the house. A feature of the 50s of the last century was that children were sent to round-the-clock groups, that is, the child came home only on weekends. This fate did not pass by little Sasha.
– I didn’t like it very much, – Alexander Anatolyevich recalls. – And I told my parents that I would sit at home on the windowsill and not be a hooligan. I will paint, buy me only paper. Then my father brought a large packet of paper, and I, keeping my word, honestly sat and drew. Apparently, then I became addicted to drawing.
That the life of Alexander Znamensky would be associated with creativity, he himself did not expect. At the turns of life, fate itself gave direction. After finishing the eighth grade, young Znamensky, on the advice of friends, entered the Kerch shipbuilding school, but did not find his calling in this.
“It was very hard away from home,” the artist continues. – During the summer holidays I came home across the country. Then the parents on duty of the father moved to the city of Angarsk. At home, I realized that I could not become a shipbuilder and wrote a letter to the Minister of Vocational Education, in which I said that I did not feel the shipbuilding forces in me. So my studies ended. And a year later I was taken into the army.
First Snow On a River
2001
Alexander Znamensky created his own unique style. Something in between graphics and monotype. Critics and admirers of his talent noted the strong influence of Salvador Dali’s surrealism in his work. Not imitation, but precisely the influence that encourages us to pave our way in the process of creation, in search of a result that has not yet been obtained by anyone.
19 landscapes: Baikal in the evening, Baikal at dawn, Baikal before the storm … Legends and legends about the Sacred Lake involuntarily come to mind. Cold tones of colors convey the greatness of Baikal, which is formidable and kind at the same time. It seemed that here it is – an inevitable abyss, but no: a reflection of a sunbeam or a young wave on the pebbles, like hope for a new, clean, bright. This is the depth of the creativity of Alexander Znamensky.
Each painting presented at the exhibition, as the author himself says, has a deep beginning that leaves an indelible impression. We hope that this is not the last exhibition of Alexander Znamensky in our city, and Zima residents will be able to enjoy the artist’s work again, having seen all its facets.
Quiet Russian Birch
2001
The artist experimented with color, looking for his own flavor. He was closer to the color of the earth: from gray-brown to golden-yellow. It was this passion that gave depth and brightness to his paintings, which make him freeze in front of his canvases. Peer into each fragment, revealing the very “second bottom” that the author sought to create in his paintings.
Friends and admirers of Alexander Znamensky’s talent recalled his extraordinary spiritual sophistication and sensitivity. They talked about his versatile talent, which left to descendants an amazing, in its breadth, heritage. Graphic works, beautiful, picturesque landscapes; portraits; bright, kind poems; surreal canvases, the depth of which only time can reveal.