Dmitry Gutov
Dmitry Gutov (°1960) was born in Moscow, which remains both his home and workplace. Not only is he a visual artist, but he is simultaneously theoretician, ideologist and art critic. After graduating from the Russian Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, he embarks on his career in the arts, largely deriving inspiration from his passion for philosophy, literature and his knowledge of Soviet cultural history in general.
Gustov combines his bookishness with artistic studies into contemporary painting and the abstract, along with the calligraphy of the Far East and graphic design. Although he started out making Post Conceptual installations, and using a diverse palette of media as an artist, employing photography, painting, video or digital art, he is currently best known for his canvas paintings and his myriad drawings and sketches in ink, which incidentally have frequently been executed on canvas as well.
Over time he has developed an intellectual visual language that embodies his obsession with the visual nuance of the traditional canvas. The images he creates have a unique appeal due to their precision and pictorial simplicity. Every picture expresses a sense of haste, as though it were made as a thoughtless exercise of the fingers, while at the same time exhibiting power, a straightforwardness that is both purposeful and well-considered. His oil portraits and landscapes on canvas have the appearance of “painted silkscreens”, often with a background colour in monochrome, with subtle contrasts woven throughout.
In terms of content, Gutov draws from every imaginable theme, object and form of expression found in culture in its broadest sense, paying no mind to time, place or ideology. Each work functioning as a short essay summarised in an image.