Five heads

Mediums: watercolor, paper.
Location: The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow (Russia).

One of the first works in the style of analytical realism was created in the first year after he got acquainted with Pavel Filonov. The 17-year-old artist, although acting like a copycat of his teacher in themes and compositions (besides, there are elements worked out by Filonov’s hand), demonstrates both the solid technique of drawing and the character of his own artistic vision. This is especially expressed in the choice of colour schemes and background design with repeating (“growing”) wavy lines. In his next, more independent works, his adherence to the gray-blue palette is combined with numerous shades of ocher colours. The idea of ​​the work is illustrated by the line of the author “The Stick and the Life as a Road”. In the 1980s, the artist created a copy of this painting also in watercolour.