About V. Kozhukh, Belarusian artist

Four seasons. The story of one photo with Vladimir Kozhukh

I know Vladimir Kozhukh from the early days. When I was accepted to the artistic college in Minsk, his pictures were hanging in the college corridors, among them was his graduation work. They were put there as an example to follow. In the evenings, the students of the higher courses and the teachers were speaking about him. Even the models were talking of him, usually with enthusiasm and delight. This is how the stories and legends about him were transmitted. It was something fabulous, almost fantastic. And when I became a student of today's academy of arts, there again I met his pictures on the academy walls and the stories about him.

Thirty years passed, and now his works welcome the visitors of the Belarusian National Artistic museum. But only few people know that in the office of the Museum's director only one work is put on the wall - that of Vladimir Kozhukh. Just imagine that the director could have chosen any other of the precious artworks from the museum collection.

If one tries to embrace everything that the painter has done, understand it (and there is a huge number of pictures to think of) and then express the essence of it, only two words come to mind: four seasons. I admit that this can be my personal vision and opinion. Probably you would express it in another way. But this is exactly the nature of art - everybody finds in it what he believes.

Sometimes I even get a weird desire - take all the works of the painter and arrange them in a sequence. To begin with those where the early spring is painted with its birch bare branches. Then put those with dark ground spots that seem as a patchwork. After that, tender green grass and a deep, penetrating blue sky. All this to be followed by emerald fields with blue sparkling rivers. Hot summer with quiet afternoons, golden autumn, winter with its trees resembling brides... And a new spring again...

We frequently meet each other in the street. We speak of something simple, fleeting, dissipating, as the clouds on his pictures. Vladimir smiles. We say goodbye, and he goes to his studio to paint his "four seasons" that are filled with palpitating joy and limpid sadness and that, as the life itself, are eternal.

Sometimes I think that Vladimir Kozhukh has learned something essential about people and about life. That kind of wisdom which is not expressed in words and which can only be brought to canvas.

Author: Vladimir Stepan

Photo by Evgenvi Koktish

Artistic concept of Vladimir Kozhukh

Each work of Vladimir Kozhukh is not only the artist's confession, but also a revelation charged with deep philosophic insight and fascinating shades of colours. They are the artist's aspirations symbolised by his muse, his beloved image of creation and eternity. Vladimir carried his own cross of creative pursuits day after day, across the virgin soil, and this way he seeks to render the eternal values of human life by artistically calibrated means. The artistic tonality of his canvases is characterised by particular emotional sounding. He has developed his own lyric style that is inherent in his amazing female images that attract attention not only by their beauty and harmony, but also by the light lyric of high feelings. The artist's works are marked by the completeness of composition and subtle treatment of colours.

Technical pursuits have never been a goal in itself for him, but have always served as a means for his global artistic aspirations. Vladimir's works reveal his sophisticated innate world and make us instinctively feel his mood. Even with the variety of subject matters and the diversity of colour treatment, his works taken together make up an entire and complete artistic series, filled with kindness and romantic dreaming. Vladimir Kozhukh seeks for high spirituality that he puts across by his works. The spirit of poetry and mystery comes through his heart to stay in the canvases and to give us a way into the fabulous and charming lands.

Some of the pictures of Vladimir Kozhukh remain unfinished, as a symbol of his constant search for the reflection of everchanging feelings. These works witnessed the sacral moments of spiritual achievements, but also hesitations, astonishment and curiosity. The women on the canvases faithfully wait for their completed image that only their creator could give them.

Genres

The works of Vladimir Kozhukh follow the genres of figure painting, allegory, still life, landscape and other types of figurative art. Female images represent a recurrent topic of his work.

As the painter himself used to say "the nature and the female figures are closely connected to each other". "As a rule my paintings, he said, are dedicated to the feminine work and mythological images. During his life, Vladimir's wife, being herself a professional painting teacher, was a strong supporter and a muse of his creations.

In his work Vladimir gave the utmost importance to professionalism and appreciated the sincere approach to art and creation. This is from this perspective that he was considering the place of a painter in the world of art. The creative artistic atmosphere is also very significant in the life of a painter. Vladimir believed that this is one of the most important factors of the development of a creative

personality. Although Vladimir did not teach art in a proper sense of the word, he was always sharing his thoughts, considerations and advice with younger painters, who were eager to learn from a confirmed master.

Vladimir's colleagues used to say that is was almost impossible to come to his studio and not to find him there. In that studio, he was working with passion, delight and greatest inspiration. He dedicated his attention completely to the power of art and it is not a surprise that he attained such a success.

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