Aleksandr Baturin

31. Trees 31 x 24 inches, oil on canvas SOLD

Aleksandr Baturin was born August 10, 1914 in Helsinki, Finland. The oldest member of the Sterligov group of St. Petersburg, he met his teacher in 1931. Much like Sterligov, Baturin suffered persecution in the grim years of Stalinism. He was arrested together with Sterligov and another student in 1934 and imprisoned for eight months. In 1935 he was exiled to Ufa, then rearrested and sentenced to eight years of forced labor at the Usol concentration camp. He was freed only in 1956 after Khruschev's denunciation of Stalin.

When Baturin returned to St. Petersburg, he painted a series of watercolors and drawings depicting his memories of exile and the gulag. He captured people's unique characteristics with a touch of light irony and warmth, all achieved in the traditions of the St. Petersburg School of the thirties. Upon meeting Sterligov again, Baturin continued his study of avant-garde principles, always contributing his own artistic sensibility.

In the sixties he developed his individual style, which has remained his signature until today. The dynamic sweep of his brush creates a dramatic and poetic atmosphere by revealing the inner shape and musculature of form. Baturin's vigorous brush stroke is evocative of Hartung's suprematist interpetation of surface and space, his use of multilayered drawing and shadings and his conjuring of mystery by energetic impressions which appear to arise from the surface of the canvas. Far from denying reality, Baturin accepts the power of the natural. He has an enduring love of nature and channels it through the laws of art and his unique vision.

Baturin's works are featured in the collections of the Russian Museum and the Museum of History of St. Petersburg, the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, and the Archangel Museum of Fine Art.

Exhibitions:

1988 Sterligov, Students, and Followers, Manege, St. Petersburg

1990 Sterligove Group, Museum of History, St. Petersburg

1991 Contemporary Artists and K. Malevich, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

1994 St. Petersburg biennial, Manege, St. Petersburg