Last fall Kush decided it was time to publish a book-album of their work. Tridtsatisemiletny artist, former Arbat portrait, leaves his studio and gallery that are located just a few blocks away from the transparent waters of the Pacific Ocean and the beach with palm trees on Maui, and goes into the cold gray Moscow.
The reason was simple. The artist knew that the new project will require the concentration of creative efforts, the flow of fantasy, imagination - and Hawaii would not have helped here, despite all its beauty. Kushu had to be back again on their native land.
"Imagination is simply not working where the sun shines so brightly - he said, finishing work on one of his regular cloths. - I needed a bleak winter Moscow - and this is some sort of subconscious feeling. "
- "Coming Home" along with paints and brush became something of an instrument of his creative process.
In late 1996, Kush is sent to Moscow for a certain, by his own definition, "energy charge". He was exhausted and depressed - six years he spent in America, trying to sell their work, and no result. Kush remembers that it was a difficult time for him that's comparable only to service in Russia's army. That short stay in the winter in Moscow is really played a big role. For Cush it was a period of real creative work, during which he wrote a cloth, made his name recognizable in galleries in the United States.
Winter 1996 Kush lived and worked in a small apartment on the north-east of Moscow. The artist notes that it was dark conditions around forced his imagination to work. It would be impossible if he just did not come back with a "divine" Hawaii. Living "in limbo" in the close room, Kush has found for his work with new ideas and with his head immersed in the work. According to him, the paintings that he created then were never as "colorful and full of life."
In the spring, returning to Maui, Cuche presented his works to the owners of the largest art galleries on Front Street, and they immediately were greeted with unusual enthusiasm. Front Street - street, is a favorite of many tourists, the most famous in the U.S. concentration of showrooms, where the rent is comparable with the New York rates. Around forty galleries are doing a lot of money on more than two million fairly wealthy tourists visiting each year on Maui. Learning that Celebrities Gallery on Front Street has earned more than a million dollars by selling his works, Cush decided to open his own gallery.
Fabrics Kush is usually referred to surrealist art direction, but the artist himself does not agree with this definition. For his work is characterized by clear, bright, clearly defined objects, more realistic inherent in the classical genre. Although unrealistic situations and unusual combinations Kush still on surrealism. Thus, in one of the pictures - the windmills, with the wings of butterflies, on the other - a chess board, gradually transformed into fanciful castles on the edge of the abyss, and the kings and queens in the center of it only half-like people. In the foreground - familiar to many metaphoric characters, the same people, often faceless creatures play a minor role.
Kush defines his style as "metaphorical realism", using metaphors to embody inexplicable ideas and concepts, such as creativity or love. According to Kush, from the Surrealists to distinguish not only the ideological framework, but the real undistorted image of objects in his works the absence of dark tones, that it is extremely important for the American audience.
"While working on the creation of these paintings, I first discovered the language that is understandable to many people. I am not a hypocrite. I drew not just a cute, sentimental pictures, and tried to express something is perceived and understood for many, something that would leave a warm trail in the soul.
Brenita Mirisola, director Rassekskoy Galleries in New York in the exhibition business for over 20 years. And she argues that the work of Cush are unique, they are bracing freshness breathes, so art lovers just the same "absorb them." Rassekskoe association includes several exhibition halls with stores in New York City, San Francisco and Las Vegas, and exhibits the works of such contemporary artists as Pierre - Auguste Renoir, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee and Salvador Dali. Rassekskaya Gallery sells paintings only a few living artists, which include and Kush.
"In order that we are now working to put a creative artist, they must be really something very unique - says Mirisola. - Paintings Kush drop visitors call on them should reflect a little. For example, Chagall - in front of you a bouquet of flowers and dancers, and nothing more. "
Nevertheless, Mirisola not see much difference between Kush's paintings and other Surrealists: "He prefers to be called metaphorical realist, but in fact it works very much like the works of the Surrealists. Kush can call himself anything you like, but 99 out of 100 visitors to the gallery will assign him to the surrealist genre.
Kush explains his earlier unpopularity in the U.S., which caught him by surprise then it simply, extraordinary gloom of his works. This feature he inherited from his artistic past in Russia. According to Kush, paintings of Russian artists simply do not understand the Americans - there is too much alien to them the philosophical and political meaning. First of all, Kusch realized that regardless of the color spectrum, Russian paintings produce a negative impression on visitors and thus deterred. Therefore, in the early 90's Kush gradually released from the dark tones in his work and began to acquire new artistic language - metaphorically realism.
Experimenting with surrealism Kush began as early as age 14, and his quest is largely directed by his father, Ivan Kushem, a mathematician by profession. Since childhood Ivan Kush instilled in his son that he should appreciate the integral relationship between mathematics and art and to emphasize the importance of the work clearly defined subjects. That dismissive attitude to the form of alienated Kush from other popular areas of art, for example, from impressionism.
Gallery owners really appreciate the talent of Kush, however, fate played a role in his successful career. In 1987, as a painter at the Old Arbat, Kush painted a portrait of a pair of aliens, strolling down the street. The man was Dr. Wolf, health attache at the U.S. Embassy. He was delighted with the work of Kush and invited him to paint portraits of the American Embassy. In turn, this led to a number of consequences: in 1989, Dr. Wolf has invited the artist to visit the United States in 1990, an acquaintance helped Kushu in obtaining visas to return back to the States. Again, Dr. Wolf gave Kushu his first book of works of Dali.
Now Vladimir Kush produces a book-album of his pictures. The book is written in English and contains not only the work of the artist, but the poetry of his father.
Todd Prince
http://www.visitor.ru/journal/detail/3371/