Online gallery of Alexander Karavaev.

Review by Anna Orlovskaya.

In the work of Alexander Karavaev there are very deep, detailed canvases!
Your own unique handwriting, with a special approach. I would say that the tendencies of Soviet cosmism are carefully preserved and even rethought here (for example, “Allegory of the Abyss”, and even the surreal homage “Dedication to Dali) is also taken straight from the futurological Soviet exhibition.
When you peer into the play of candle light on pomegranate seeds or into the radiance of a mystical blue sphere on the canvases of this artist for the first time, you immediately vaguely feel a certain association. Some connection to your own precious long forgotten sensations. But what? And then insight comes: the mystical paintings of Alexander Karavaev are like covers of musical vinyl records or cassettes with hard rock or rock and roll from the 80s! By the way, the painter himself loved them so much.

Perhaps that is why the artist's paintings have their own musical structure. Yes, yes, Wassily Kandinsky, who perceived colors in painting as the keys of a musical instrument, would agree with me here. And, perhaps, he would have noted a clear major in the works of "a nugget from Siberia." What are worth only his "Dandelions in a Summer Night" (2017), where the polyphony of color-sound in no way becomes a cacophony, but is built into a solemn unhurried melody.

Alexander Karavaev himself would probably call his canvases paintings-moods. The gifted colorist was stingy with words, but inside he was emotional and acutely felt what was happening around him, like any person who once picked up a brush. The master recorded his experiences on canvas, which is why they often do not look like everyday reality, but rather resemble vivid images from a deep night's sleep.

A striking example here is a series built on seemingly contradictory themes of religion and.. cosmism! However, these ideas in the artist's works are not so much complementary as they give birth together to a new reality. His "Christ of St. John of the Cross" (1973) or "Dedication to Salvador Dali" (2004) may look to many as a direct reference to the works of the iconic surrealist.
But, fortunately, they are devoid of aggressiveness and kitsch inherent in the works of the Spanish artist.

What is the secret of the alluring attractiveness of the artist's paintings? Perhaps the whole point is that, by a stupid accident, Alexander Karavaev could not enter the Leningrad Academy of Arts. And at the same moment, by a lucky chance, he, perhaps without realizing it, escaped the academic shackles and gained creative freedom. And freedom is the main thing that any creator subconsciously requires.

These works captivate me, because in many ways they remind me of childhood: at the turn of the era, many still lifes were painted in this way (deep and at the same time soft lines, rich palette, velvet burgundy fabric in contrast with light-emitting colors). So diligently, as if by hatching, they wrote out the hairs on the squirrel skin.
The craftsmanship is evident!

Anna Orlovskaya, journalist, correspondent of the TV program "Cultural Evolution"