Facets of Realism: Solo Show of Works by the Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts Alexander Tolstikov
The Russian Academy of Arts presents portraits, compositions, still lifes by the Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts Alexander Tolstikov produced by the artist in 2009-2011.
Alexander Tolstikov was born in 1957. From 1981 till 1986 he majored in painting in the workshop of the People’s Artist of Russia R.B. Nurmukhamedov, in 1986-1990 upgraded his skills in the workshop of the People’s Artist of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts S.B. Krasnov. Alexander Tolstikov is a frequent participant in modern art shows in Russia and other countries.
Alexander Tolstikov has created a vast gallery of female portraits different in character and technique. His portraits are not only a realization of his searches in art, but are also his reflections on the female nature, its specific features and facets of beauty. Some of them are full of an open, fabulous energy, others are reserved and melancholic or audacious and provocative, but all women in his portraits are invariably beautiful in various manifestations of their female essence.
The artist, who is one of the followers of a psychological portrait, is focused on the inner world of his models. Alexander Tolstikov prefers an informal approach to the creation of the portrait characterization. His work on the female image is not predetermined, the artist gives his model a possibility to remain natural thus contributing to the disclosure of her unique personality. This delicate, intriguing play of senses, expressions and intonations fills the image with an additional content where illusions and reality are intricately combined. In his works Alexander Tolstikov affirms a reverent attitude to a woman beautifying the world through her spiritual qualities and multi-sided beauty. His female portraits are distinguished by a very careful selection of color accents.
On display in the exhibition halls of the Russian Academy of Arts are also the artist’s still lifes and flower compositions looking like “portraits of flowers” as they are very expressive and emotional. Alexander Tolstikov notes, that “it is the complexity of flower painting, where the color plays the most important role, and this energy of color that provide an artist with unlimited possibilities for an experiment”.
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