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The
icon...
It's the incarnation of spirituality, veneration, approaching
the divine; they are ancient mystery signs recognized by the
initiated.
Eroticism...
It's the beauty of the flesh that troubles the obscure forces
of the body; it's that perilous equilibrium on the edge of
obscenity, a first step towards sin.
An Erotic
icon (The paradox of Peter Reichet)
Can an artist be so absorbed by eroticism that he expresses
it as an icon which he then venerates? It is more likely that
Peter Reichet chose this paradoxical combination as an artistic
technique, not creating erotic paintings but very unique masterpieces.
The Danish art dealer Per Anders coined the term "erotic
icons" when he first saw Peter's work. The contrast between
the icon technique and the content is what shocks the viewer
much to the joy of the artist.
Peter Reichet, whose father was also an artist, grew up in
the Russian Academy of Arts (Art Institute named after Repine)
St.Petersburg. He was fueled by the principals of classicism
that were at the core of all art education in Soviet Russia.
But this lively and rebellious nature was constrained in this
dogmatic atmosphere and he was seeking new paths in art.
Early on he discovers icons as a window to another world with
a view on Byzantine antiquity, centuries of spirituality and
Russian culture for those in the know. More importantly, he
discovers a new form of expression, composition techniques
and colors that were radically different from the realism
that was in vogue. Peter Reichet does not become an icon artist,
but instead icon become the key to his art. |
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It
is now close to 30 years that he has been cultivating
the thematic models from Russian icons. His romantic themes
of whale fishermen, pirates of the great north, are slowly
built up using the typical narrative methods of icon artists.
The main event is in the center of the icon surrounded
by secondary events with the same characters in sections
that icon artists refer to as "Kleimo". Reichet
also uses the ancient technique to built the support for
the icon. |
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One
of several boards assembled using a special technique such
that they form a concave surface on which a fabric called
pavloka is glued. The fabric is then coated with levkass,
a mixture of chalk and sturgeon glue. After 20 to 30 coats
of levkass, the surface is polished with a pumice stone to
render it smooth enough for painting. |
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The
gilding is created using gold leaf glued on the levkass and
flattened with a fish tooth. The creation of the icon's board
is in itself a captivating work of art.
Even though Reichet has improved and simplified the creation
of the boards, he often refers to them as levkass.
The pictorial technique used by P.R. is characterized by the
polyphony of colors and the use of decorative elements. He uses
an abundance of gold leafing and vivid colors typical of the
traditional icons of Pskov and Novgorod. The artist's love of
the romanticism of the North Sea, maritime adventures and fantastic
monsters from the abyss. But at the same time his work evokes
the type of phantasmagorical creatures often found in medieval
art. |
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Reichet's
symbolism is complex. There is what the artist wants to express,
what he is really expressing in addition to what the viewer
interprets in spite of him, in his erotic icons. "Everyone
wants to see or represent the nude body, says the author, not
everyone dares to do it freely. I do".
Strangely, in his paintings, the sentiment of freedom and debauchery
originates from the ocean creatures, fantastic fish and sea
snakes and he nude women are all mysterious, awkward and dangerous
looking. It is just another paradox that Peter leaves up to
perspicuity of the spectator to discover. |
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Vera Tchernishova
an art critic who often covers Peters art. She is a member of
the Russian Artists association and has worked at the Hermitage.
She currently consults with private art galleries in Florida,
California and Berlin. |
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