Seven Artworks That Didn’t Impress the World

Essay by Galina Vasilenko* “Seven Artworks That Didn’t Impress the World” was published on Vilnius University website on 10th June, 2018.

Sergey Etvuhov: “I hope this has never been before, even though it’s hard to impress the modern world with anything”

Seven Artworks That Didn’t Impress the World

I found an hour for my favorite philology studies, which means I turned myself to AAA (Anna Akhmatova) and again was turning pages of her essay “Amedeo Modigliani”, and then as usual paused to have a look at Akhmatova’s sketches of Modigliani, here’s one of them:

Looking at it I suddenly remembered this:

Well, that’s probably not Akhmatova, rather this sketch:

What am I hinting at? I’m sure that my readers remember Sergey Evtuhov, his literary works and his “Matisse” in winter editions of Almanakh. Sergey has another amazing project. He himself put it this way: “My idea is very simple: see, embody and make real the characters of paintings by Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, Modigliani”. Sculptor has in his hands only one variant, chosen by the painter for their artworks. And this “variant” also goes through the prism of individual perception, characteristic of a particular painter. It’s impossible to have a good look from all sides at the model, go around it or turn at a desired angle – the model doesn’t exist in shape. But the goal is to make a sculpture not only impressive, but also alike to the original character from the painting.

And Sergey created such sculpture artworks for exhibitions held in Audi Salon (Vilnius) in MC2 shopping mall (Riga) as well as Geneva (Swiss watch store in Riga) And so they live… with their own life, independent from Toulouse-Lautrec, Modigliani, Degas, Gauguin. Here’s an example:

And another one

And still another

And this lady bathes independently from Degas (whether Degas the painter or the sculptor)

Sergey has a serious reason: “Degas hid the basin into the bronze stand, so that it looked like that basin is deep and total size of artwork seemed enlarged. I just made the bottom of the basin thicker, so that the figure of the lady would be more visible. Ornate heavy stand of Degas increases the total weight but doesn’t add to the artwork itself. And what works well in Degas’ paintings, loses here.

These are wonderful 3-D metamorphoses that beautiful 2-D (un)known characters went through in the studio of Sergey Evtuhov. Seven artworks that didn’t impress the world. Or did they? Like “Anya” after drawing of Evtuhov himself:

*Galina Vasilenko, PhD, professor of philology from Vilnius University

Comment of Sergey Evtuhov: All models of my sculptures that Galina pointed to, perfectly match! And the first model as well – that is not Akhmatova, but 2nd sketch in the selection. That is not hand of Akhmatova, but of course of Amedeo himself… But this series consists of 7 sculptures. The 7th is the nude from Gauguin’s painting “Are You Jealous?”

And two more photos of "Bathers" (from the Geneva salon in Riga and from the Audi showroom in Vilnius)