Artists

Gennady Larishev was sixteen when he first came into contact with the Fed-oskino school of miniature painting on lacquer ware. He is now one of the most distinguished Fedoskino masters.

The old village of Fedoskino, situated not far from Moscow, has a history of its own. Painted lacquer ware began to be manufactured in Rus-sia in the late eighteenth century. At the begin-ning of the next century it became a full-fledged original form of decorative art at Fedoskino. The technology of manufacturing lacquer articles us-ing papier-mache was borrowed from Germany and introduced into practice by the Russian merchant P. Korobov. The production of such lacquer ware at Fedoskino began to flourish under Pyotr Lukutin, whose factory turned out painted caskets, snuff-boxes, tea-caddies and al-bum covers. The Lukutin lacquer articles, which won a reputation in Europe, stood out for their high quality and artistic brilliance. Their success was largely due to their affinity with the tradi-tions of Russian culture. The miniature art of Fedoskino is based on a painting technique of applying several coat-ings of transparent oils. The small boxes, whose deep-black lacquered surface sparkles with bright colours, are comparable to articles of jewelry. The refined painterly execution is matched by the idyllic, meditative mood of the images, by the melodious compositional rhythms. Gennady Larishev excels in painting both in solid and transparent colours, and this enables him to achieve the subtlest painterly effects. Among his subjects are fairy-tale and historical plots, as well as genre scenes and landscape motifs. In 1950 he joined the Fedos-kino painters' artel (which has since become a factory). Those were the years when the orien-tation of miniature art on easel painting resulted in a vulgarization of the artistic devices of the former. Larishev was gradually able to over-come this drawback as he strove for the assimi-lation and creative development of the specific idiom of miniature painting. Some of Larishev's works testify to his keen powers of observation, revealed in striking details and motifs, e.g. The First Tractor, Bullfinches. Others, like The Frog Princess, The Snow Maiden and Alyonushka, are marked by exquisite subtlety and a warm feeling for the Russian landscape. Larishev has never stopped studying the principles of painting and draughtsmanship. While remaining true to the tradition of Fedoskino, he strives to assimilate the experience of major trends in contemporary art: the genre painting of the Tkachov brothers, Vladimir Favorsky's system, Eli Belyutin's school. He keeps looking for painterly means of expression that are applicable to the Fedoskino technique of oil painting and black lacquer. Larishev is a past master at applying gold, silver and mother of pearl-materials which are per-fectly suited to his fairy-tale images {Vasilisa the Beautiful, The Snow Maiden) and make his land-scapes glimmer with an inner light {Silence, JVight Pasturing of Horses, Golden Autumn).

The artist's genre scenes (Path Crossed by a Cat, An Encounter) owe their expressive power to dy-namic outlines, movements and gestures. Genre scenes are increasingly coming to dominate his work. The creation of plastic form by painterly means on a flat surface calls for the highest professional standards. Larishev strives to achieve this, using a two-fold approach: creative interpretation of tradi-tion and assimilation of the experience of major art schools and experimental trends. Yet there is no doubt that Larishev's principal tutor is na-ture, from which he has always drawn his motifs and images