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Suite of Sergei Rachmaninov
Nikolay Sednin • Graphics, 2020, 90×70 cm
Description of the artwork «Suite of Sergei Rachmaninov»
“Portrait with a prologue and epilogue.”
Dedicated to the mastermind of the portrait - my wife Barbara Sednina.
In recent years, the leaders of large Moscow universities have become fashionable to buy paintings from me. Often these are custom copies of my large format photo collages from cycles of the mid-2000s with an abundance of aesthetics of the naked body, which is incredibly surprised, but always sincerely glad, because I consider this fact to be signs of good taste. Occasionally there are orders for portraits.
In early March 2020, I received an order for a large portrait of the composer Rachmaninov and several photos were sent to me. The customer insisted that the composer's hands should also be necessarily depicted in the portrait. Unfortunately, Rachmaninov’s hands on all the photos sent looked as if they were sluggish and inexpressive from melted wax. Perhaps the photographer did a poor job, or for the pianist, such relaxation of the hands and fingers is normal, but for me as an artist to draw such hands is an extremely thankless task. I asked to send additional photos and was absolutely delighted when I saw the photo of the composer at the piano in profile and with a cigarette in his mouth, inserted in the fashion of his century into an elegant mouthpiece. From this moment, Sergei Vasilievich and I established a friendly contact, as both turned out to be heavy smokers!
It so happened that smoking tobacco for me is often associated with thinking about new compositions and fixing ideas on paper. It is at such moments that I come up with new images. I imagined that He did this in his time, which means that the process of smoking and writing notes of new works was a single whole. Hence the idea came up to make a black and white portrait on music sheets surrounded by arabesques from smoke rings that invariably strive for the shape of treble clefs. A lot of time was spent searching for the notes necessary for a portrait. I chose both a recognizable work and at the same time I was looking for notes printed on yellowish, as if composer already smoked paper. The choice fell on the musical edition of the Suite d-moll with simultaneous reprint reproduction of the original copyright notes of the composer. Nine pages of music sheets formed the basis of the collage, and the rest were hidden until the next call, because there was no doubt that I would have a desire and a reason to return to the realization of my idea more than once.
By the way, I never considered smoking a reason for pride, but I’m sure that the great Russian composer would support me that this portrait is not about a bad habit, but about music that arises even from tobacco smoke when you are obsessed with art .
Dedicated to the mastermind of the portrait - my wife Barbara Sednina.
In recent years, the leaders of large Moscow universities have become fashionable to buy paintings from me. Often these are custom copies of my large format photo collages from cycles of the mid-2000s with an abundance of aesthetics of the naked body, which is incredibly surprised, but always sincerely glad, because I consider this fact to be signs of good taste. Occasionally there are orders for portraits.
In early March 2020, I received an order for a large portrait of the composer Rachmaninov and several photos were sent to me. The customer insisted that the composer's hands should also be necessarily depicted in the portrait. Unfortunately, Rachmaninov’s hands on all the photos sent looked as if they were sluggish and inexpressive from melted wax. Perhaps the photographer did a poor job, or for the pianist, such relaxation of the hands and fingers is normal, but for me as an artist to draw such hands is an extremely thankless task. I asked to send additional photos and was absolutely delighted when I saw the photo of the composer at the piano in profile and with a cigarette in his mouth, inserted in the fashion of his century into an elegant mouthpiece. From this moment, Sergei Vasilievich and I established a friendly contact, as both turned out to be heavy smokers!
It so happened that smoking tobacco for me is often associated with thinking about new compositions and fixing ideas on paper. It is at such moments that I come up with new images. I imagined that He did this in his time, which means that the process of smoking and writing notes of new works was a single whole. Hence the idea came up to make a black and white portrait on music sheets surrounded by arabesques from smoke rings that invariably strive for the shape of treble clefs. A lot of time was spent searching for the notes necessary for a portrait. I chose both a recognizable work and at the same time I was looking for notes printed on yellowish, as if composer already smoked paper. The choice fell on the musical edition of the Suite d-moll with simultaneous reprint reproduction of the original copyright notes of the composer. Nine pages of music sheets formed the basis of the collage, and the rest were hidden until the next call, because there was no doubt that I would have a desire and a reason to return to the realization of my idea more than once.
By the way, I never considered smoking a reason for pride, but I’m sure that the great Russian composer would support me that this portrait is not about a bad habit, but about music that arises even from tobacco smoke when you are obsessed with art .
