Few modern Russian artists embarking on a quest for the finest, purest form are, at the same time, as preoccupied with the content, philosophical meaning, as Vladimir Dukhovlinov.

Such preoccupation is, essentially, in the tradition of prime exponents of the classical avant-garde, including Kandinsky, Mark and Klee. In fact, Paul Klee is credited with a phrase that seems to be essential for understanding the rationale of Dukhovlinov's art: "Not to reflect the visible, but to make visible."

Dukhovlinov does, indeed, "develop" the covert plasticity and vividness of objects and landscapes in search of their innermost meaning, guided solely by his own refined and watchful creative optics. Within the eerie shimmering substance of his amazing paintings, there may occasionally arise fragments of simple objects, recognizable debris of being, but their straightforward physicality only accentuates the profundity of the imaginary realm, the domain of the soul.

The artist frequently draws on religion for his subject-matter, but he never paints episodes from the Holy Scripture. Instead, in doing so, he strives to comprehend the progress of the mind in the cognition of its own enigma, the ultimate vision of harmony that reveals itself only to those who persevere unfailingly in their quest. At the same time, the artist exercises rare chastity and reserve; he never attempts to tear into the subconscious; he only touches it gently with the kind of aristocratic tact and sense of proportion that characterize the entire body of his noble oeuvre.

 

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