23.11.2022 Yehuda Rotenberg, art critic and reviewer
Evgenii Gruzdev is a portrait artist who has gained a lot of notoriety for his incredibly realistic and life-like paintings. Gruzdev says that he is always looking for new ways to capture the human condition in his paintings and that his work is his most personal yet.
In his latest series of paintings, Gruzdev has decided to focus on a single subject: the human face. He was inspired to capture the unique emotions that each person conveys. Evgenii says that he spend a lot of time studying the human face, both in person and in photographs.
Evgenii’s Gruzdev latest project is a series of portraits of people from all walks of life.
Charlie’s portrait begins with two sketches or portraits of Al Prima, the sketches were painted to the music of the band Blondie in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere with conversations about traditions and life in different countries and England.
Evgenii and Charlie really enjoyed these evenings, they found a lot in common in each other, became friends and decided to create a full-fledged big portrait project, which I want to talk about.
If we look closely at Charlie’s portrait, we will see a lot of interesting things,
there’s a lot to look at. We become curious to look into the eyes of the character, to trace the relationship of the subjects, and that’s when the documentary portrait becomes a full-fledged painting that we can talk about a lot.
Every piece of furniture in Evgenii’s painting has meaning to Charlie, like the painting on the wall on the left side of the canvas, which does not exist in reality. The painting depicts his favourite corner of the estate – the boat house on the pond. At Charlie’s request, Evgenii masterfully incorporated this landscape into his work, making it resemble the work of nineteenth-century English landscape painters.
In the interior surrounding Charlie, we see many pieces of furniture that fit together beautifully, they create a coherent composition that does not allow the eye to relax and lose interest.
Evgenii masterfully depicts the decorative details, the Chinese porcelain, the table with the Russian crown embroidered with beads. The inlaid black chair from Charlie’s childhood is also of particular significance, with Evgenii detailing its mother-of-pearl back, it shimmers in pink, turquoise and emerald. The ornate, curved legs of the chair are reflected in the warm, glossy floor and seem infinitely immersed in the atmosphere of the house.
Evgenii convincingly conveys the texture of the marble, gold and silk walls; looking at it, one believes and feels that it has an extraordinary breath.
The painting’s protagonist, Evgenii, Charlie himself, appears theatrical yet intimate and domestic. Found through various juxtapositions and changes of pose, the sustained composition, built on a harmony of elements, shows us that Evgenii’s realism and precise eye, his firm master hand finds a formula for Charlie, this formula requires a refined silhouette figure, a fixed and characteristic pose in its casualness, a new standard, similar to that which characterised the 18th century classical portrait.
Evgenii developed this form, asserting the portrait iconography of today. Charlie’s portrait has all the nobility and triumph of painting, all the obligatory qualities required of a formal portrait.
Among his contemporaries, Evgenii Gruzdev is one of the few whose work can be considered “out of style”. The master combines different qualities in himself. He can be very kind and sensitive, share all thoughts and feelings of his model, and at the same time cognize the essence of man with a cold analyzing glance.
Each of his feelings Evgenii necessarily melts into an aesthetic category. The main thing is the ability to rise to power. Perhaps it is this artistic and human quality that distinguishes him from others.
Evgenii Gruzdev is a master who plays his role to perfection, he is more destined than anyone else to bring painting into the twenty-first century. Evgenii’s work is truly amazing. His portraits are not only realistic, but they are also full of emotion. Each portrait tells a story about the person who is being portrayed. Evgenii has a gift for capturing the essence of his subjects. His work is truly one of a kind.