After Palekh
After Palekh was born from Kozyrev’s experience from the constraints of the pandemic. Overnight, the closing of studios and curtailment of travel reduced workspaces to the size of a kitchen table top and the radius of influence to a neighborhood—or the vast distances of virtual exploration. Most Russian homes have a few examples of Palekh miniatures in their homes; Kozyrev’s drew his notice in a new way as he began to miniaturize his own work.
At its core, Dimitri Kozyrev’s work has always been about the individual’s struggle to manage change. Some change is subtle as aging or erosion. But the shattering and sudden changes that we experience personally and collectively during the past 18 months have been culture-changing and life changing. It is the tectonic, paradigm shifting changes of revolution and war, natural and human created disasters, geopolitical standoffs that are threats to our stability, our health, and our sanity which draw the most notice and study.
After Palekh was born from Kozyrev’s experience from the constraints of the pandemic. Overnight, the closing of studios and curtailment of travel reduced workspaces to the size of a kitchen table top and the radius of influence to a neighborhood—or the vast distances of virtual exploration. Most Russian homes have a few examples of Palekh miniatures in their homes; Kozyrev’s drew his notice in a new way as he began to miniaturize his own work.
The artists of the village of Palekh began painting fairy tale miniatures during their own time of cataclysmic change. Originally trained as icon painters, the Russian revolution of 1917 meant their religious subject matter was out of favor, and potentially even dangerous. To preserve their art and their livelihood, Ivan Golikov and other artists including Ivan Vakurov, Ivan Bakanov, Ivan Markichev, and Alexander Kotukhin used the same egg tempera techniques to adorn papier-mâché keepsake boxes and decorative plates with images from the fairy tales which all Russians learn from childhood. The resilience of these artists in the face of change has sparked a school, founded a museum and brought fame and economic stability to a village of just 5000 people.
Palekh miniatures focus on character and story telling and look to the past. These artists are known for their use of inverted perspective. Kozyrev’s work contemplates similar black backgrounds, gem-tone colors, and gold highlights. But these are translated to the one point perspective common to his Lost Landscapes series. Much like the public spaces that were abruptly emptied in March 2020, Kozyrev’s contemporary After Palekh landscapes are presented without the characters on the stage. As is often the case with dramatic change and turbulence like that the world experienced in 1917 and 2020, we are left to chart new stories in the dramatically altered stage that stretches in front of us.