The artist of this week’s edition of Artist of the Week is Alexandre Evgrafov. Some of his artworks can be seen on our Artists section of our website. Evgrafov was born in Baku, Azerbaijan. He’s had an interest in art since the age of five. At seventeen, he attended Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He then pursued his masters at the School of Post-Graduate Studies at the Academy of Arts. Evgrafov’s artworks can be found in private collections all over the world, including Academy of Fine in Russia and Pushkin Museum in France.
His artworks from the early 90’s were the inspiration of his time spent in Toronto, Canada. Alexandre Evgrafov’s artworks, including his encaustics (i.e. nudes of women ) remind me of Picasso’s early works in Cubism. His landscape oil paintings, portraits and still lifes have an interesting Impressionist style that can be paralleled to the works of Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, and Vincent Van Gogh. Evgrafov’s pastel artworks have an interesting use of colour and texture. There’s even a painting of flowers that reminds me of Japonism period. The aquarelles have a captivating simplistic beauty. His black and white sketches are incredibly well done. Evgrafov’s works have a variety styles from many periods of art history.
A favourite for me is the oil painting that features the CN Tower in Toronto, in the centre of the artwork. It’s an oil painting from his Cities series. The style is quite similar to Impressionist art. An example is the painting Impression, Sunrise by Claude Renoir where a river or lake dominates the space of an oil canvas. In the background there’s the city of Toronto, which is a contrast to the scenery of nature or old architecture. This is an example of the influence from his time spent in Canada.
You can have an extensive look at his artworks on his official website. Enjoy!
Flora Habbab, BFA
