Roman Viktorovich Mertslyn
Born in 1950 in Perm. Graduated from the Saratov Art School in 1966. Since 1976, works as a production designer on television.
Works in collections
Works are held in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Art Modern Gallery, Fora Film Studios in Moscow, Lithuanian Republican Jewish Museum, Voronezh Regional Art Museum named after I.N. Kramskoy, Saratov Art Museum named after A.N. Radishchev, the State Museum of K.A. Fedin, the House Museum of N.G. Chernyshevsky in Saratov, as well as in private collections in Russia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Israel, Canada, USA, and France.
Exhibitions and auctions
1984 Music and Painting. House of Artists at Kuznetsky Most, Moscow; 1986 Solo exhibition. Editorial office of Avrora journal, St. Petersburg; 1987 Solo exhibition. Writers' House named after V. Mayakovsky, St. Petersburg; 1989 Traditions and Modernity. Voronezh, Russia; 1990 Solo exhibition. Radishchev Art Museum, Saratov, Russia; 1991 Palette of Friends, Moscow; 1992 Solo exhibition, Arka Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Critic
...In portraits, as in landscapes, Mertslyn does not strive for self-sufficient pictorial quality. A call of life, not a mere impulse of pure craft, is heard in the rhythmic pulsation of his painting. He is a master with great natural temperament and solid artistic culture. Early on, he realized the insufficiency of the so-called 'innards' which some very gifted painters tend to boast about. Early, he found the serious social note of his art, addressed to people. His art has found its road to the viewer by itself, and does not need official approval or recognition. E. Vodonos
Bibliography
Avrora magazine, No. 4, 1986; E. Vodonos, 'Painting of Roman Mertslyn', album 'Space of the Painting', Soviet Artist, 1989, Moscow, pp. 200-210; Catalogue 'Traditions and Modernity', 1989, Voronezh, p. 112; Ogonyok magazine, No. 46, November 1990, pp. 25-27; M. Shashkin, 'Nonconformists of the 60s-80s', Art journal, No. 10, 1988; Solo exhibition catalogue, 1991, Saratov; Catalogue 'Palette of Friends', Soviet Artist, 1991, Moscow; Catalogue 'Artists of Art Modern Gallery 60s-80s', Art Modern gallery, 1989, Moscow, p. 35.
Works 5
