Tsereteli Art Gallery Presents a Show of Paintings by the People’s Artist of Mordovia Fedot Sychkov (1870-1958)

The exhibition features 40 paintings by the People’s Artist of Mordovia, Honored Art Worker of the Russian Federation Fedot Sychkov (1870-1958) from the collection of S. Erzya Mordovian Republican Museum of Fine Arts. It has been timed to several important events: the 140th birth anniversary of the artist, 50th anniversary S. Erzya Mordovian Republican Museum of Fine Arts and 1000th anniversary of the unity between the people of Mordovia and peoples of Russia.

Sedot Sychkov was born in 1870 in the village of Kochelaevo, Penza Province (now the Republic of Mordovia) in the family of a Russian peasant. From 1892 he attended the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists and the Academy of Arts (1895-1900) in St. Petersburg, where he majored in battle painting under noted artists N.D. Kuznetsov and P.O. Kovalevsky.

His native village and fellow-villagers became an inexhaustible source of the artist’s inspiration. Stuck on the colorful element of the life of ordinary people Fedot Sychkov depicted simple motifs of the Russian countryside with poetics, mild humor and kindness. He worked mostly in the genre scenes and portrait painting. The artist of optimistic talent, he found pictorial means for embodying the specific character of national street festivals, holidays, winter amusements. His paintings rich in colors depict his favorite characters: young, stately, rosy peasant women and cheerful children.

In 1908 Fedot Sychkov traveled in Europe mainly in Italy, where he painted a series of canvases including “Naples”, “Venice”, “Rome. Ruins” and others.

The painter’s works full of joy of human existence were consonant to the creative impulse of the Soviet time. The establishment of the Republic of Mordovia inspired his interest in the Mordovian ethno culture that resulted in the creation of a series of canvases devoted to this topic.

S. Erzya Mordovian Republican Museum of Fine Arts boasts of over 500 paintings by Fedot Sychkov whose works can be also seen in many museums of Russia.




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