cherry Oleg

July 15, 1934 (Moscow region)

We lost their faces. And maybe they never had.

Tselkov

painter and graphic artist.

In 1949-1953 he studied at the Moscow Art School. Later - in the Minsk Art Institute (1954), which was excluded under the standard for that time, the pretext for "formalism". In 1955 he entered the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after Ilya Repin and was again certified. In 1958 he graduated from the Leningrad State Theater Institute, named after AN Ostrovsky specialty "artist-engineer the scene, he studied at the Akimov. He continued his work in Moscow.

In the early 1960's Tselkov - an active participant in the artistic life underground. But, considering any dialogue with the authorities to be impossible, he mostly refused to participate in the informal exhibitions of the time, so he did not participate in the "Bulldozer Exhibition", or in an exhibition in Forest Park Izmailovo.

first solo exhibition was held in 1965 at the Institute of Atomic Energy. Kurchatov (Moscow). In subsequent years, there were 17 exhibitions of the artist in the United States, Britain, France, in 2004 solo exhibition was held at the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg) and the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow).

«... In 1961, after much searching I found the character or characters in my paintings, which live in them today. ... This character is like a new human race. He is also a humanist and antigumanistom, and it can not separate these two elements. It is not good and not evil ... "(Oleg Tselkov. 1989).

«... the first time I accidentally" pulled "from the face of the person" in the image and likeness "and saw a" person ". Shocks my no bounds. I wrote like a portrait, but not a portrait of a single entity, and a portrait of a universal, all together in one person and - terribly familiar .... On the face imprinted millions of years, mankind lived in the past. And the same - in the impenetrable future ... "(Oleg Tselkov. Paris. 2001).

Since then, the motive faceless, devoid of specificity "face-masks" designed by the artist in a multitude of variations. In his paintings forever blurred the difference between a "mask" and "face". The difference between his people is only in the entourage that accompanies these individuals: "the Order", "with a knife," with a safety pin "," with scissors, etc. Household world on canvas, Oleg Tselkov very limited and consist of no more than a dozen items such as hat, spoon, knife, scissors, rope, pipe, fork, etc., the living world they are a cat, a dragonfly or butterfly, flower, watermelon, pear, apple. But they are only signs - symbols of what it happening around us.

«What is happening in the world has never interested me breathless. Well, tell me what is happening today? Yes, the same thing that we saw yesterday. Blood is shed, people steal, fight and cry, devastate homes ... Day after tomorrow will be exactly the same ... Forty years from day to day I look into his own hand painted faces of his characters, asking everyone: "Who are you?" The meaning of their response is always devoid of intelligibility, raspolzayas like smoke ... It is clear to me is that behind them a thousand years ahead of eternity! ". (From an interview with O. rubles. 02. 11. 2004.)

great importance in the pictures Tsalkova is in color. The artist removes all its muted palette, the transitional colors, using only saturated ink brutal.

In 1977 the artist emigrated to France, where he successfully continued his work.

«... Prior to his departure had little interest in the history of painting - I was only interested in myself. Arrived - and rushed, as in Aladdin's cave, watching museums, exhibitions, books ... I delved into all, but I saw: it is not my measure ... All these experiences helped me to finally believe in the light of my stars. My character, who was born in Russia, continues to live in a foreign land, matereya ... "(From an interview with O. rubles. 02. 11. 2004.)

Works Tsalkova are in the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), Zimmerly Museum of Rutgers University (New Jersey, USA), in private collections in France, Russia, the United States.