Vasily Shulzhenko: paintings

Scabrous postures, ugly bodies, terrible drunken faces - this is the first impression after acquaintance with the canvases of the Moscow artist Vasily Shulzhenko, whose work is considered very scandalous. Passing familiar to almost every moment, the author's pictures depict life from the unsightly side, as if in opposition to the generally accepted opinion that art should inspire and evoke high luminous feelings in the viewer. From many Vasily Shulzhenko hears accusations of dislike of Russians, for instead of the obvious vices of society and the image of extreme fall, a person could draw great people, colorful beauties, elegant nature.

About Shulzhenko's characters

The heroes of Vasily Shulzhenko's paintings are desperate villagers, who mostly entertain themselves with drinking. And more and nothing. They almost lost their human face, they do things that are acceptable for them, but unacceptable and provoking rejection of a person from another world. And the evil they realize is mostly unconscious: people seem to be unaware of what they are doing. Why such a strange and malicious subject? According to the artist, the canvases depict images from childhood, held at the dacha near Kasimov.

Vasily Shulzhenko: paintings

Cloth "Cupid" depicts hovering over a pair of alcoholics Amur - the same as they: with dirty hair, crumpled and drunk face. In the transmitted moment of the forthcoming act of copulation there is neither eroticism nor pornography. Fleshly coitus is common for two drunk people: a fallen withered woman does not have the slightest sense of shame, and a man is not capable of giving caresses. After the incident, the couple will quietly continue to deal with the main business of their life - alcoholic libations.

The picture "Square" from the same opera: the people - to become their own leader. Vasily Shulzhenko portrayed the usual life scene: an invalid who had collapsed on a bench, a drunken peasant to the point of disgrace, whether his mother or his wife leads home. In the background, a character who has been pissing on the same pincushion for years.

Time will pass. Heroes of the picture will go to another world, their place will be taken by others. The bust of the swollen Leader will not change anything.

On the verge of being

Sometimes in the paintings there are heroes who come from the world, where there is still a line between good and evil.

Some have hope of salvation, like that boy in a sailor's jacket, who may have another chance not to follow in the footsteps of a drunk grandfather and his neighing brotherhood. The girl from the canvas "Potato merchants", apparently, will have to repeat the fate of her relatives; On the child's face there is already a seal waiting for her life.

Outrageous work of the artist

Creativity of Basil Shulzhenko, which the author calls "figurative painting in the genre of free imagination," is outrageously distinguished against the background of the works of other artists and is perceived by the viewer in different ways. Our compatriots believe that showing shameful wrong side of domestic life is at least indecent. The foreign viewer reacts differently to the characters of the paintings that Vasily Shulzhenko wrote: he begins to regret them, sympathizes with their existence and the harsh conditions in which they are forced to survive.

Shulzhenko Vasily is an artist whose works are exhibited in the State Tretyakov Gallery, Kissi Museum (USA, Oklahoma City), are in private collections in Russia and abroad, namely Italy, the USA, Finland, France, Holland. Since 1972 he has participated in exhibitions of the city, republican and all-Union scale. Vasily Shulzhenko lives and works in Moscow.