MOSCOW—Sergey Andriyaka is confident that this display of his paintings in Moscow’s premier exhibition hall will go more smoothly than the last.
In 2004, his works were almost almost destroyed here: The hall caught fire a few hours before the exhibit closed.
This is the third time that Andriyaka has had an exhibit in Manege—the central exhibition hall in Moscow. This year, for the first time, viewers can enjoy the complete collection of Andriyaka’s paintings—over fifteen hundred of them. Excited art lovers have waited in long lines to enter the show.
Sergey Andriyaka is known as a master of a very special multi-layered watercolor technique, which was lost in the Soviet era, and revived by him through careful study of masterpieces from Brullov, Savrasov, Levitam and Vrubel. Andriyaka’s work concentrates on Russian landscapes and cities, churches, and provincial towns, as well as still lives of beloved Russian flowers and foods.
‘I would go into my passion’
Sergey Andriyaka has a strong student following in Russia, and is planning to open the Academy of Watercolor and Fine Arts soon to train a new generation of skilled artists.
Painting has seemingly become more than just a profession for Andriyaka. He confessed: “Art is in many ways healing a person, healing from the inside. I would go into my passion, become immersed in my work. I concentrate, and I would heal my spirit from the inside. The most wonderful thing and the most noble is to be able to pick up a brush or a pencil, and to go into the world that you are trying to express, even if for just a short while”.
Victoria said when she saw the paintings “I really liked the exhibit. Everything looks so natural! I almost want to eat the fruit and sniff the flowers off the paintings, and walk through those nature paths. Everything is picturesque. Great paintings!”
Andriyaka attended the opening of the exhibit on June 19, and explained how he found his own path in art: “When I gradually concentrated on watercolor painting, and almost stopped oil painting all together, I felt, that I could paint everything and express everything with watercolors, and that its’ optical and color potential is greater than any other painting technique,” he said.
The exhibit attracted Russian beau-monde: prominent politicians, public figures, people in the arts. Andriyaka’s old teacher, prominent Russian painter Evgeniy Ustyunov came to look at his student’s masterpieces.
Reminiscing about the time that he taught Sergey basic painting skills he said: “Sergey was once just a small boy for me. I knew his father. Sergey was my student in an art school. He was then painting good watercolor paintings, especially winter landscapes were very poetic. He was very skillful and very thorough”.
The art exhibit will run in Moscow until July 3.
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