Vladimir Bashlykov. Words Will Turn Into Silence
25 PETROVKA STREET
About the exhibition
The Moscow Museum of Modern Art proudly announces Vladimir Bashlykov’s personal show Words Will Turn Into Silence. The exhibition is a retrospective of his work as an artis and a port from the 1970s to the 2020s.
The art of Vladimir Bashlykov is essentially autobiographical. The master's works can be divided into story series reflecting different periods of his life. Early graphic and poetic works bring out the themes of Youth and Beginning of Vladimir Bashlykov’s creative process, the whole range of experiments in circulating and original graphics of the 1970s. After the 1980s the artist turns to Biblical themes. From the second half of the 1980s to the 2020s, he painted large pictorial series and individual canvases, touching on such themes as Flight, Motherhood, Candlemas and Purification, based on the idea of catharsis. Landscapes of Vetluga, abstract canvases and works dedicated to the theme of Childhood have become integral series in his legacy.
The images on Vladimir Bashlykov’s canvases and graphic sheets are of a literary nature. They sprout from literary and philosophical works of famous intellectuals. The fine arts are supported by his own poetry, that he writes alongside intensive involvement in the fine arts. The exhibition also includes poetic quotations from his books.
More than 100 works are on display, some of them Vladimir Bashlykov donated to the Moscow Museum of Modern Art between 2004 and 2024. These include early pictorial and graphic portraits, genre scenes made from life on the streets, abstract compositions and cityscapes.
About the artist
Vladimir Ivanovich Bashlykov (born in 1943, Kamenka village, Khmelnytsky region, USSR) is a painter, a graphic artist, and a poet. From 1961 to 1962 he studied at the Moscow Academic Art College, majoring in theatrical scenery. In 1970 he graduated from the Faculty of Applied Art at the Moscow Textile Institute. In 1977 he became a member of the USSR Union of Artists. His works are in the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts, as well as in private collections in Russia and worldwide.
Media-partners
Images;
1. Two seated female figures. Early 1980s. Laid paper, pastel, gouache (whitewash). 23 x 26 cm. Courtesy of the author.
2. Vetluga. 2012. Acrylic on canvas. 70 x 90 cm. Courtesy of the author.
3. Vetluga. Sunset. 2012. The Vetluga cycle. Oil pastels on paper. 40.5 x 51 cm. Courtesy of the author.
4. Owls. 2019. The Dreams cycle. Oil pastels on cardboard. 50 x 61 cm. Courtesy of the author.
5. Spasskoe. 2003. The Vetluga cycle. Paper, dry needle. 31.5 x 52 cm (sheet); 11.4 x 38.5 cm (print). Courtesy of the author.
6. Landscape with a figure. 1983. The Vetluga cycle. Paper, colour autolithography. 37.6 x 41.2 cm (sheet); 29 x 31 cm (print). Courtesy of the author.
7. Tallinn. 1974. Paper, etching. 40.3 x 45 cm (sheet); 26.5 x 34 cm (print). Courtesy of the author.
