Vladimir Galatenko

Works are held in the Museum of Moscow History, Directorate of Exhibitions of the Union of Artists of Russia, Moscow Union of Artists, Exhibition Association "Central House of Artists", Moscow Department of Culture, Museum of Fine Arts of Karelia in Petrozavodsk, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Art Museum, Kurgan Regional Art Museum, Tobolsk Art Museum, Russian Cultural Foundation, Museum Simeonstift in Trier, Germany, The Bradford Exchange in Baar, Switzerland, The Hafnarfjordur Institute of Culture and Fine Art in Reykjavik, Iceland, Bhaktivedanta Institute World Charity Fund, Milan Branch, Shifskommerz, Dresden, Germany, and in private collections in Russia, Austria, England, Germany, Denmark, India, Iceland, Italy, Poland, USA, Turkey, France, Switzerland, Sweden, and Yugoslavia.

1991 Russiske kunstnere i Svendborg. AMTS Kunstforening "SAK". Svendborg. Denmark; 1991 Exhibition of Russian artists. Collection of Jeffrey Curtis. London; 1993 Zeitgenossische Malerei Aus Rusland. Kloster Karthaus. Konz. Germany; 1993 ART-LINE. Painting exhibition. Augsburg. Germany; 1993 Exhibition of Moscow painters. Bahrain; 1995 Vatnslitamyndir Water Colours. The Hafnarfordur Institute of Culture and Fine Art. Reykjavik. Iceland; 1995 Kulturtage’ 95. Zeitgenossische Malerei Aus Russland. Trier. Germany; 1996 Karma Rus Ressamlari Sergisi. Konrad Adenauer vakfi sanat galerisi. Ankara. Turkey; 1996 ART MANEZH`96. Central Exhibition Hall "Manezh". Moscow. Personal exhibition; 1997 Impressionen aus Rusland und der Region Trier. Rathaus Trier-Land. Trier. Germany. Personal exhibition; 1997 Sunny Square. Russian Cultural Center named after A.S. Pushkin. Luxembourg; 1999 Personal exhibition at the International Union of German Culture. Moscow; 2000 "Nord" artist group exhibition. Central House of Artists. Moscow; 2002 A.P. Chekhov in Melikhovo. Personal exhibition. Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation. Moscow; 2002 Personal exhibition. Consulate General of Russia in Gothenburg, Sweden; 2003 Frankfurter Buchmesse 2003 "Gastland: Russia". Tenth Republican Exhibition. CDH. Moscow. ILLUSTRATING BOOKS: "Master of the Winds. A Nenets Fairy Tale". Moscow. Children's Literature. 1982; "Tuvan Folk Tales". Moscow. Children's Literature. 1984; Sedugin A. "Prosha". Moscow. Malysh. 1987; Tvardovsky A. "Son". Moscow. Children's Literature. 1987; Kuzmin L. "Once Upon a Time There Was a Girl". Moscow. Malysh. 1987; "Old Years. Russian Historical Stories and Tales of the First Half of the 19th Century". Moscow. Artistic Literature. 1989; Agafonov V. "Chefs-doeuvre du jeu de dames. Les Beaux Sites". Paris. 1989; Chernyavsky M. "Fiery Ballad". Moscow. Children's Literature. 1991; Strugatsky A. and B. "The Doomed City". Moscow. Young Guard. 1991; Zabolotskikh B. "Captain of the Four Seas". Moscow. Association - Book. Enlightenment. Mercy. 1991; Lagin L. "Old Man Hottabych". Ensti F. "Copper Jug". "Upside Down or A Lesson for Fathers". Moscow. Drofa. 1993; Reed M. "The Quadroon" (BMLD Vol. 13). Moscow. Children's Literature. 1995; Paustovsky K. "Stories". Green A. "The Running on the Waves. Scarlet Sails". (BMLD Vol. 21). Moscow. Children's Literature. 1999; Mérimée P. "Novellas". (BMLD Vol. 36). Moscow. Children's Literature. 1999; "Storytelling Poems". Old English poems, ballads, legends (in English). Moscow. Terra (unpublished); A. P. Chekhov "Selected Works". Moscow. Astrel. 2003; Isaichev V. "Sincerely Yours". Biblion/Papergraf. Italy. 2004

My stimulus in work is the search for the Ideal, Beauty. In creativity, for me, the creator himself is more important—his moral and ethical criteria. Constant dissatisfaction with myself does not allow me to work in a once-found manner, a developed technique, or to exploit a single theme. The material and format change, but the restrained color palette and shallow pictorial space remain unchanged. A reverent, awe-inspired attitude toward nature often leads to a chaste, sensual depiction of form and an involuntary patina of silvery haze. The ideas of reformism are alien to me. In my work, I trust more in feelings and intuition.

In his worldview, Vladimir Galatenko is a typical romantic, inclined not so much to fix various states of nature, but to transform and generalize them into his own lyrical experiences. His recent works are carefully composed and multilayered—they can conditionally be called "visions". This is a kind of pictorial idealism, immersing us into smoothly and almost imperceptibly transitioning colors and forms, into a light and tonal environment where not so much specific objects and tangible bodies live, but their shadows. Looking at a landscape or interior, a bouquet of flowers or a female figure, the artist usually does not focus on separate small details. He sees the general and the whole, sees the environment and the air enveloping the forms. The organic nature of this approach is unquestionable. The viewer, along with the artist, tunes into a musical mood and cares little for the constructive connections of human figures or the order of a particular still life. Music is pleasant to listen to, not analyze. Galatenko is fully satisfied by the harmony he finds in nature and in himself, which he does not test with algebra. Landscape takes a special place in Vladimir’s art. In a certain sense, one can say that as an artist he emerged from the landscape—out of golden autumn shade, under green summer crowns, from the perpetual twilight and air of overcast days. While depicting nature, Galatenko remains a free interpreter of what he has seen, combining the concrete and the general, the real and the invented. The artist loves portraying the kin, mobile, and changeable elements of water and air—the water surface and the sky reflected in it. Water-based paints—watercolor and gouache—thus become ideal means of expression, conveying the moist medium of various landscapes. From these works, it is natural to trace Galatenko's path to decorative and almost abstract pieces, where line movement, light spots and colors reach their peak. Book graphics also occupy a significant place in the artist’s creative biography, and a romantic haze naturally pervades his illustrative series. Slightly apart due to its applied nature but organically related to other forms and genres in the artist’s work, stands the series "Four Elements of the World." Despite their miniature size, they impress as monumental compositions, capable of withstanding significant enlargement and adorning not only small forms but also walls, ceilings, and other architectural surfaces and details of public buildings. It would not be an exaggeration to conclude that our author's creativity is universal—he addresses not only traditional forms of easel art but also tackles applied monumental tasks. Large and small canvases, the artist’s graphic sheets, are often inhabited by images of "Eternal Femininity", the erotic element being not so much neutralized as softened by active rhythm and overall decorativeness. In the painting "Two", for example, four or five scenes and genres simultaneously coexist. Landscape and still life enter the interior, which in turn serves as a frame for several portrait depictions. Everything is conditional and mobile, like a joyful dream, impossible to retell in the morning. In his best works, Vladimir remains a poet of color and light, a romantic of a decorative mind, immersing us in dreams and mirages of free creative imagination. Without classifying his best works by the principle of types and genres, techniques and materials, one wants to combine in an ideal exhibition those exquisite, virtuoso pieces where the lifelike and the accurate do not hinder the generalized and illusory. Vladimir Galatenko is a subtle lyric musician, freely mastering dissimilar pictorial instruments, suitable for chamber and symphonic concerts on canvas and paper. — Vilyam Meyland

Akvarel/Water-colours. pp.35-46, AO MKS, Moscow, 1993; TV. Channel 1. "Morning" program, Moscow, 18.02.1993; CD-ROM, "Computer Art Collection. Contemporary Fine Art", Vol.4, Multimedia Publishing House ARTINFO, Moscow, 1997; Almanac "The Revival of Tobolsk", pp.42,46,74, Galart Publishing, Moscow, 1998; "World of the North" magazine, No.1-2, pp.49-52, Moscow, 1999; "Moscow Journal", No.9, pp.56-57, Moscow, 1999; Contemporary Russian Artists, pp.184-185, ScanRus, Moscow, 2000; "Journal of Applied Psychology", No.4, pp.60-61, Moscow, 2000; "Moscow Journal", No.11, pp.62-63, Moscow, 2000; Album "Vladimir Galatenko/Galatenko", GOFRN, Moscow, 2000; "Art of Russia/Russian Art Guide - 2002", pp.20, 291, ScanRus, Moscow, 2002; "Art of Russia/Russian Art Guide - 2002", pp.64-65, 452, ScanRus, Moscow, 2003; "In Thy Name". Union of Artists of Russia. pp.402, 665. Interbook-business. Moscow. 2004; XX-XXI Century. Graphics, Paintings. 106 artists. pp.142-143, 169. MSK OHGSI. Moscow. 2004; "In Thy Name". Union of Artists of Russia. pp.402, 665. Interbook-business. Moscow. 2004.