He lived next door to me. We met and greeted each other,
nothing else. I knew little about his creative work.
Now I feel sorry that I can't than k him personally,
thank him for his wonderful talent, for his soul,
for his modest manners, for the many of paintings
he created.
Evgeniy Zolotov's landscapes are a prayer for Russia.
They are a quiet song of the woods, the Earth and
the sky. They are a symphony of color, not bright,
not contrasting, but convincing and picturesque.
His paintings are inhabited by trees, bushes and
flowers. They have a soul, they are alive. They
talk to me, as they talk to other viewers. They
speak about good and evil, about the world being
wonderful and variable, interminable and constant.
The artist talks to us by means of colors; this
is his way to unfold his soul and the mystery
of nature.
Each painting is a harmony of earth, plants and
people. The pale green colors last and sound.
All of a sudden the dark tops of fur-trees appear
as the counterpoint of the color symphony, as a kind
warning: man, be sensitive and responsive to nature
and humanity, there is no everlasting peace on earth,
so we must take care of it.
...It was more than 60 years ago. He was eighteen
when he went to the front. He was injured, and left
lying on the neutral territory - the Germans were
firing on the left, the allies were firing on
the right. He had been lying there for three days
and three nights, injured, starving and frozen.
Nobody can tell now what Zolotov, an ex-student
of Mstyora art school, was thinking about. He was
looking at the sky, wondering - would he survive
or perish? He was carried from the battlefield,
taken to the hospital.
While recovering, Evgeniy made several paintings,
portraits of Lenin and Stalin and backcloths
for the hospital club. After the WWII
he continued his studies in Vladimir.
He considered himself lucky to get acquainted
with the Moscow professor Nicola Sychev,
who had been deported to Vladimir. An appreciation
of ancient Russian architecture and painting
affected Vladimir artists - Kim Britov,
Vladislav Potekhin, Nicola Mokrov, and others.
For certain, Evgeniy Zolotov digested the professor's
lessons well. They redounded to his manner of paintings
- quiet, thoughtful sadness, realistic idiom, - as well
as to his very temper.
However, he did not paint in bright pastous
brush-strokes, as many other artists did.
He preferred to efface himself, preserving
his personal manner, not following orders
of the day.
In the fifties and sixties the Vladimir school
of landscape painting was gathering to a head.
Bright festive palette united lots of artists.
Art experts owed this fact to longing for
a feast - after the mourning war years, after
the stagnation in the world of art.
Zolotov had his own values: to follow traditions
of Russian masters, not to be untrue to himself,
not to merely provide a snapshot of nature,
but to put everything he went throug h and
experienced on to the canvas.
...A sunny day. Birch-trees on the hill, apart
from one another. The wind whispering with
the leaves, as if trying to draw closer to each
another. Long shadows like a cry for a meeting,
like a desire to touch the beloved. The trees,
which the artist especially loved, are most
expressive in this painting. Evgeniy Zolotov
painted hundreds of birch-trees - in winter,
summer and spring. But this elaboration
of shadows appeals to me in particular: there
is art in it, and thought. Who knows, maybe
the author becomes a philosopher: life - what
is it? The answer is simple: happiness
is life itself.
Arthur Miller, a well-known American writer,
said: everything I look at interests me.
To my thinking, Evgeniy Zolotov took an interest
in everything, most of all - in the nature,
people, in the motherland - Russia.
Russia is Orthodoxy, it is centuries-long history,
it is masterpieces of architecture. The Russian
landscape, even today, cannot be imagined without
cathedrals, without large and small village churches.
So in this respect, Evgeniy Zolotov is not
an exception to the rule. The churches in his
paintings are created by a master touch, not brassily,
but with that special feeling of a person who was born
in an orthodox land, in the cradle
of the Russian nation.
He managed to express his attitude towards the past,
the present and the future through his paintings.
His paintings are a light reminiscence of the past
and the prayer for the future of Russia. There is
love in them, and worry, and hope.
His creative work has not been appreciated yet.
But I do believe that one day Zolotov's paintings
will be talked about, and the world will
discover this new outstanding talent.
Svetlana Baranova,
Member of the Russian Writer's Guild.