Opening the World

Arkady Rudolfovich Polyakov is a graphic artist, painter and restorer. He is a member of the Youth Association of Vologda’s Artists since 1999. From 1995 to 2001, he worked as a graphic designer in the Vologda branch of the RF Art Fund. Since 2002, he is a fine art restorer of wooden articles in the Vologda State Museum-Preserve for History, Architecture and Art. He was trained in the All-Russian Art Scientific and Restoration Centre named after academician I.E. Grabar in 2004 and 2006. He is a member of the Union of Russian Writers since 2008.

Arkady Polyakov participated in regional, All-Russian and foreign art exhibitions in: Vologda (2004, 2006, 2012), the Borey Art Gallery in St. Petersburg (2009), the private gallery of Artemy Troitsky in Moscow, Kotor (Montenegro, 2013), the Russian Scientific and Cultural Centre in Warsaw (Poland, 2011), and the Kirillo-Belozersky Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve (Kirillov, 2015). He was a diploma winner of the academic exhibition in the Russian Academy of Arts in Moscow in 2006.

The artist’s works are kept in the collections of the Vologda Regional Picture Gallery, the Vologda State Museum-Preserve for History, Architecture and Art, the Kirillo-Belozersky Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve, the Scientific and Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts, the Russian Cultural Centre (Warsaw), the Kadnikov Local History Museum, in private collections in Russia and abroad.

Arkady Polyakov is a young and very promising artist. Professional painters and art critics noted his competent attitude to the solution of purely creative tasks, the statement of serious problems of stylistic and thematic characters since his first displays. Over the last few years, he doesn’t allow the audience to “get used” to his creative work because he is in the continuous state of exploration mastering new forms of arts.

Creating pictures in the open air, he tries to depict the exact light and colour state of nature, finds subjects, compositional spirit and emotional tone. The artist starts from nature that inspires him in its own way and finds its own characteristic in every motive. Then the depiction contains inside information that the spectator hasn’t seen before, but looks at him or her through the painter’s eyes. The spirit of novelty and traditions of the classics, symbolic vividness and realistic manner of execution combine in his works. Arkady Polyakov tries to demonstrate his talent in different kinds of fine arts. He creates landscapes, portraits and still lifes.

Landscapes created in the open air in Russia, Montenegro and Poland dominated in the exhibition. Among them there were fantastic genre compositions that were typical for his creative activity: “Struggle of Two Plants”, “No Match”, “Landscape in the Mountains of Montenegro”. The harmony of combination of the medieval church architecture, country wooden houses with the surrounding landscape always disturbs the man sensitive to the beauty. We could feel the artist’s delight in this harmony of the world in his pictures painted in Vologda, Kirillov and northern villages: “Her Majesty Green”, “Spring in Ustiye”, “Church and Old Linden”, “Saviour at the Hill”, “Guards of the Russian Land”. Touching children’s recollections were reflected in the painting “Waits for Something”.

The artist invited spectators to accompany him in the perception of the outside world with the help of his works.

L.M. Kharlapenkova, research officer of the Exposition