“With Pen & Brush” by Nikolay Sednin

The exhibition “With Pen & Brush,” held in June 2023 at the gallery of the house-museum, is dedicated to fundamental concepts in the world of art: plane and line.

What is a line for a person? The line of life, the line of fate, the line of movement… A ray of light is also a line. When a ray of light illuminated the darkness, the Universe was born.

Likewise, when a line is drawn on a canvas, art is born.

The intersections of many lines give birth to the multiverse that goes beyond canvas.

From a certain angle, a line becomes a point. A point appears to the viewer as the result, the end of the journey, the achievement of a goal. To this point, we shall get acquainted with the personality of the author, as this multidimensionality is created by him by fusing visual art and philosophy.

Most visitors to the exhibition know Nikolay Sednin as a public figure and leader, organizer, and a person helping artists, sculptors, designers, musicians and other talents from all over the world to improve themselves, to achieve their goals and increase their popularity. But not everybody is aware of what important role the art itself plays in his life.

So, let’s speak of Nikolay Sednin as an artist. As a Russian artist he works first and for most in painting. One of his works is the first full-length portrait of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.

Nikolay Sednin found his own two art areas: Di-art and Heliographics. But he works not only in painting, but also in photography. He’s an honored artist of Russia and is included in the international project of the Unified Art Rating “The Greatest Artists of the World of the XVIII—XXI centuries”. And more – as a Doctor of Art History he found his way in sharing his experience and research in his books as a writer.

The exhibition’s exposition combines two complementary cycles. The cycle “Drawings with One Line” is the body, skill, matter. The cycle “Drawings for Meditations” is the soul, consciousness, inspiration.

Drawing is the basis of all types of plastic arts. The basis of the “Drawings with One Line” cycle, created by the artist in 1989, was the idea of maximally accurate transmission of the image using a line. All drawings were made from nature with ink on paper. A characteristic feature of many drawings in the cycle is the linear transmission of forms and chiaroscuro. The cycle’s idea is to capture the image of a person from nature using only one single line. Seems not too hard – but only with some certain level of excellence which Sednin definitely has, one can improve the image with the same very line by adding transitions of light and shadows. This makes the tiniest details of bodies and clothing look photographically accurate.

The realization of the idea required extreme concentration, since the drawings were made in ink on paper without preliminary sketches, and the slightest inaccuracy could ruin the drawings.

The artist’s models were friends he met during his work in Odessa. Later, the cycle was continued in Riga, St. Petersburg, and Moscow.

The basis of the “Drawings for Meditations” cycle made in 1993 was a creative experiment aimed to test the idea he called the “effect of a released hand.” The works were created with eyes blindfolded, using a brush on paper, and each image was completed in a matter of seconds.

As a result of the experiment, in 1994, Nikolay Sednin came up with the idea of a possibility to intentionally change consciousness during the creative process. The work on the cycle marked the beginning for the author’s direction of Di-art.

The exhibition’s exposition features a number of subjects illustrating the author’s philosophy. There are three main motifs, which can be supplemented with quotes from Nikolay Sednin’s autobiographical book “Drawings from Events.”

Figures of people, portraits. “The main mystery is the person. The main task is to comprehend oneself. The main tool is emotional labor. Art is one of the points of application of our efforts and a reflection of internal growth.

Art is one of the ways of self-knowledge. Man and woman – two halves of a whole, and therefore only through the female body and soul can a man be opened to understand the fullness of harmony.”

The naked female body. “All the artist’s art was and should be dedicated to the Woman as the most beautiful and unique creation on Earth. In 1990, at the age of 20, I set myself the goal to depict the beauty of the female body as a universal symbol of the end of the 20th century and the completion of the great era of the art of the passing century in one of my graphic cycles.”

Images of objects. “I want to create compositions in which, apparently, everything will be simple, and stylistically they should look like a child’s drawing. The whole complexity of constructing graphic rhythm, the symbolism of color and tonal relationships should remain for the understanding of the few chosen and behind the facade of external decorative clarity.”

The works are made in the giclée technique from the master’s original drawings from 1989-1994. The Nikolay Sednin Museum released 10 copies of each work from the exhibition. Each giclée copy bears the museum’s coat of arms and the author’s original signature. Each work comes with a certificate of authenticity issued by the museum in 2023.

In conclusion – words of Nikolay Sednin, which will help walking the path of creativity together with him.

“To perceive the singing of birds, you need to hear the bird inside yourself – to hear it, you need to raise it within yourself – to start raising, you need to see it inside yourself.”

Olga Veretina, art critic, Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Contemporary Arts, Executive Secretary of the Professional Union of Artists of Russia, PR Director of the international competition “Art. Excellence. Awards”.