winter journey / ZAKHAROV g. alexander (painting, graphic)
02 March 2019 - 20 April 2019
The sky is fogged in. Grey in grey is the landscape - lost before an endless horizon. The snow is trickling softly. The painter's palette contains almost unbelievable shades of white. Power poles stand like bizarre memorials, stretching their arms into the distance, seeking help. People stomp undauntedly towards an uncertain future. The painter Alexander G. Zakharov calls his current cycle of paintings "Winterreise". Without explicitly referring to it, Zakharov congenially takes up the motifs of "Winterreise", the great song cycle by Franz Schubert. Melancholy seems to be a deeply human state of mind, independent of territorial boundaries and at all times. Which, if permanently present, can lead far into the realm of shadows, even to death. But which, as a temporary phase, also has the potential to pause, to reflect and to dream endlessly. This is also the case with Zakharov - man's perpetual search for meaning, home and happiness, which breaks new ground in his pictures. Landscapes become soul pictures as if Otto Modersohn or the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch had been the godfather with his melancholy. The coldness that jumps from these paintings to the viewer, the vastness of the horizons, the loneliness of the black figures, the monochrome of the grey literally penetrate you to the bone. The heart is heavy with longing, seeking the light. "Painting, that is something that comes out of me. I am a tool, like brushes, spatulas, scrapers, scribers are also my arms tools", says the artist. "It paints me. I must paint! It paints me, it paints inside me, it paints me like that". Alexander G. Zakharov was born on 19 June 1957 in Kiev/Ukraine as the son of Russian parents. An exhibition takes him to Germany, where he has lived and worked for over 20 years because of love. Alexander G. Zakharov has already exhibited in many renowned galleries around the world - including Chicago, Singapore, Paris, Zurich, Trelleborg, Dubai and New York.
Authors: Dr.Jörg Bockow / Münster), Hellfried Christoph / Dresden
Introduction/artist interview: Dr. Jörg Bockow / Münster) + Musical accompaniment: Olga Nowikowa / piano and Lars Födisch / double bass / both Dresden