On the distant shores

QGallery presents solo exhibition of the artist Anar Yolchiyev – “On the distant shores”. Exposition includes the artist’s pictorial and graphic works, created during his journeys to islands of Indian Ocean and Indonesia. The sphere of visual art is experiencing unprecedented complications during the last decades in all levels: organizational, infrastructural, thematic, formal and above all, in conceptual level. The artists are transformed to researchers, political activists, scientists, managers, whether the art itself to extremely sophisticated media of rapid developments diagnostics in the society. But the growing number of arts people and philosophers talk about waste of the art’s core values and about where to expect renewal and a fresh air. Outstanding theatre director and innovator Vsevolod Meyerhold has used to say as far back as in the beginnings of the last century: “The theatre will be saved by dilettantes”. Which means “amateurs”, who really love the art and don’t use it for immediate income or for satisfaction of professional vanity. But let’s make an important slip: the artist about whom we will talk further is not a dilettante in the conventional (neglectful) sense. Despite the lack of professional education in the field of arts, he is the member of Union of Artists, being exhibited systematically and his works are housed in private collections in different countries of the world. Undoubtedly, Anar Yolchiyev is a true artist and a professional in its full meaning. But his professional competence is related to professionalism of those category of rare artists, who developed throughout their artwork potential of pure, immediate perception of the world, observed among children, which unfortunately is being lost during the maturity and socialization. Exactly in this meaning above the aspect of “love to art” was mentioned, not unlike “the life to wisdom”, constituting etymological definition of philosophy. Pablo Picasso considered more late periods of his creative life as the peak of his artwork, when he managed to gain naïve, childlike vision and often repeated that he had to pass through all his life to finally learn and describe the world as a child does. Innocence and clarity of the pure perception – these are the basic words, defining the best characteristics of the artworks of such great masters as Henri Matisse, Picasso, Fernand Leger, not to mention Henri Rousseau and Niko Pirosmani as direct representatives of “innocent art”. Anar Yolchiyev succeeds traditions of these masters. In his creativity he applies to various genres, but gives preference mainly to landscape. His attempt to capture the purest and substantial in the surrounding reality – its natural beauty, yet not spoiled with active and unfortunately, often destructive involvement of the modern human is clearly evident. Anar draws sea, sky, trees…as if he is the witness of their centuries-old splendor. As the objects of the nature existed before the human, and most likely will exist after him. When the artist with all his open heart and pure perception draws nature motif, he sometimes manages to catch the most difficult – vivid presence of nature itself, “gazing” at us. We may clearly observe it, for instance, in the artworks of Paul Cezanne, who is capable to draw endlessly the same landscape motif, when we start feeling that it’s not the artist contemplating the nature, but the nature itself is looking at the artist – that’s how unique “frequency-wave” resonance emerges between the soul of an artist and the World’s Soul. Something similar, consciously or unconsciously is being intended by Anar Yolchiyev, describing the nature as if depicted piece contains all the universal energy, but not cold and indifferent to human, but quite the contrary, as staring at him, attentively observing his actions and ready to take substantial role in his destiny. But only deeply loving soul of an artist is able to catch the tiny state of nature’s openness to human. According to his paintings, Anar has exactly the same kind of soul. The soul of a child within the adult. (Teymur Daimi, artist, philosopher) *** Anar Yolchiyev was born on 03.11.1974 in Baku. After graduating from the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy in 1996 has worked at Azercell company. During 2010-2011 has worked at the of Azerbaijan Republic’s President’s administration office. Has started painting since 1999. Since 2002 Anar is an active participant at different exhibitions. In 2011 he was enrolled to the Union of Artists of Azerbaijan. Works by Anar Yolchiyev are housed in private collections in Azerbaijan, Belgium, Russia, Georgia and Turkey.