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From: Charlotte Pimpernel
Category: Art
Date: 07 July 2009
Time: 10:49 AM
Review:
www.samkaprielov.com
'THE SEE'
Sam Kaprielov came to London in 1998 a box of pastels in one hand, suitcase in the other and
immediately set about defining his vision of what art is and can be when an artist is unencumbered or
dazzled by today's ferocious and unfeeling stampede towards commercialism with a view to
immediate success fueled by an insatiable desire to be noticed for all the wrong reasons at any cost.
Art like anything worthwhile needs to be savoured.
So, without the usual agenda of sensationalism that has blighted the art world in recent times, that is
exactly what Kaprielov has set about doing. With the skill of a master at work he has ignored the
pressure to conform and set about creating contemporary work in a newfound classic form.
His technique of drawing the images, with soft pastel on a gessoed plywood board, then simply using
his fingers, (his main tool) to shade in the drama which mystically occurs, is as much an art as the art
which emerges consequently, and the finished product seen from afar is often mistaken for a
photograph, such is its technical perfection.
Kaprielov's pespective is infinite. This, coupled with his unrivalled sense of light and shade, makes
way for his imagination to run riot creating imaginary, motionless, emotionally charged scenes,
dramatic escapades, filled with images that refuse to be defined. If, contrary to the idea of art which is
an innate sense of freedom, the work has to be pigeonholed as is our wont to do, one could call it
visionary, surrealist, realist, for no matter what is written by so many experts and critics respectively,
the world over, one can only ever speculate as to what goes through the mind of an artist at the exact
moment of inspiration.
The boundless energy of this artist gives you a sense of the eternal on the one hand, whilst bringing
you back down to earth in one fell swoop with his disparate images of desolation and beauty. It is
perhaps no accident that this juxtaposition occurs in Kaprielov's work, having grown up in, and
experiencing first hand, life in communist Russia, to then seeing Venice for the first time, followed by
the Cote d'Azur, through to London. This journey in itself is enough to feed a mind force-fed
bleakness.
Genius is a word alluded to far too frequently and inappropriately in this day and age, but the
effortlessness in which Kaprielov delivers such depth and dimension coupled with the simplicity;
cleanliness of line and spatial awareness truly affords itself this accolade.
Lest one forgets due to the onslaught of post-postdadaist work being produced, art has in the past
and can still encompass classic qualities, which translate through time. Technique and ability count
for much more than bravado. It is time to stop gawping at the gaudy parade of emperor's new clothes
being shown to us, that are now positively vintage, so much have they been worn, and reacquaint our
senses with art which invades reality instead of just commenting on it.
Charlotte Pimpernel