Biography

What can't a man exist in this world without? Some people will answer - without love. The others will say - without faith and hope. The third will mention water, food, warmth. It will also be true. And only few people will say - without air. And in this exact answer there will be honesty in the face of reality.

But what can't a talented artist exist in this world without? I'm afraid of being romantic but the example of Igor Mashkov convinces us that he can't live without painting. Painting for him is the same air without which his life is impossible. Of course, like for each man, love, friendship and contemporaries' recognition are important for him. Like all of us the artist enjoys the fragrance of fresh bread and emotionally feels the coolness and bracing strength of pure water sip. However for a young artist the flexible elasticity of the brush, the sparkling of the squeezed colours on the palette and the attractive whiteness of the canvas waiting for the first dabs are the sense and purpose of life. Because with the help of colour and brush he can tell the world about love, friendship, hope, of the beauty of the light shades that are thrown by high clouds on the fields full of spikes. Mashkov's art engrosses not with dramatic fullness of the "story" but with a more mysterious quality - an ability to convince the spectator, enthrall him by the reality created on the canvas.

The artist's creative passion integrates the landscape, historical picture and portrait genres. It seems that these trends of activity are greatly determined by those biographic peculiarities that are typical of the most promising young artists of today. Igor Gennadievich Mashkov was born in Moscow in 1967. In 1985 he graduated from the Moscow secondary school of art under the Surikov Moscow State Institute of Art. The exhilarating atmosphere of art evoked an interest in different creative tasks and internal professional mastery impelled to achieve depth and expressiveness in any idea. In 1993 as a graduated artist he left the Surikov Moscow State Academic Institute (the professor Glasunov's portrait studio). Since that period — a membership of the Russian artists' union; since 1995 — a three-year training (after competitive selection) in the painting creative studio of Russian Academy of Arts guided by academicians A.P.and S. P. Tkachevy. Participation in exhibitions,successful contacts with art galleries, creative trips over the country and curious acquaintance with museums and nature, life of Greece, Austria, Spain. During a short period of time the signature 'T. Mashkov" under the landscapes or portraits has become customary and recognizable by specialists and art-lovers and the canvases themselves were included in many private collections of our country and abroad.

The artist's original creative interests were connected with portrait and historical picture. Development of historical plots ("Falconry of the tsar Alexey Mikhailovich Romanov", "Oprichny court of the tsar Ivan Grozny" etc.) besides his interest for colour, atmosphere, an understanding of the role of the silhouette and gesture has intensified a longing for revealing the individual's soul. The canvas 'Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich and patriarch Nichon" was the final work in the institute that required both a profound source study and a picturesque expression of the heroes' psychologic state. As a frequenter of traditional student's gallery Igor Mashkov during several years listened to the great and interesting singers and soloists of many Moscow theatres. Very close to him was the company 'The Cossack circle" which in the early nineties made a great contribution to the revival of the long-standing Russian song tradition. That's why besides usual patterns of friends and acquaintances the young artist reflected the characters of the company's members ("Cossack in bekesha", 1996; "V. Fudko's portrait", 1996). It is noteworthy that each of them has its own character, behaviour, colour. I think that this capability to penetrate a person's inner world arises from such art quality as erudition, the high culture of the artist's personality, so infrequent in our days. Love of music, knowledge of poetry, ability to listen to a man and tactfully, without aplomb express his opinion - all of these contribute to a calm and working atmosphere of sitting and help the model to get rid of restraint. The development of portrait series connected with musical theme has found its further expression in the canvas "Portrait of F. Shalyapin" (1998).

At the same time the work on historical canvases induced the increased attention to the landscape component of the idea. The faded, anxious light of afterglow or fairy-tale white-and pink clouds easily ascended at the horizon constituted a low "echo" that emphasized the plot express! veness. The young artist always made sketches, landscape outlines. It was a naturalness of the life, when a box of paints, a rag necessary for brush wiping and washing, brushes and other working accessories were used during the morning, day and evening, if not hourly, then every day. Painting is the same as air.

However the maturing process has opened before Igor Mashkov the new sides of the world of nature - a sensation of nature's perpetual harmony. Thedlightful mystery of surrounding terrestrial variety living according to its eternal laws has carried the artist away. Of course, today such a quivering deepening into colour, light and landscape inexhaustability of the world is perceived as a natural attempt to return to the sense of balance of a man and surrounding elements. Apparently that in this admiration with boundless river expanses or healthy coolness of the morning meadow air the elegiac awareness of the increasing loss of unity with woodland and field world is hidden. But there is a hope that the break between urbanizated man and nature-mother hasn't yet occurred. That's why the open adoration (and it's typical of Mashkov) is intrinsic to the painter's artistic manner even when he paints the greenery of alder or a willow thicket that surround the slowly flowing water ("Bridge across the river", 1996; "Willows over the river", 1999), or a plain expanse around

The artist's creative ways are directed to the places consecrated with the memory of an outstanding landscape painter V.D. Polenov, to Moscow boulevards, the picturesque parks of the near Moscow suburbs - Kolomenskoye, Tzaritsyno etc. Everywhere the young master tries to show the peculiarity of the places and colourfully incarnate the state of nature ("Quiet shelter. Novodevichi monastery", 1997). The shape of trees, the character and degree of the density of their leaves, the colour and tone wealth of grass and bushes near the river — all these are full of sincerity, intent observation and mastery ("Overgrown pond", 1998; "Moon over the river", 1999). The dab is accurate and detailed, even the colour of similarly located and lighted trees consists of a subtle variety of shades; the composition reveals the Russian character of the theme of nature ("River shoals", 1999). A desire to spiritualize the character being created is indirectly reflected in the skilled use of colour material. One can see that the artist tries not to fascinate the spectators with a beautiful view but make them admire the terrestrial nature — a balance of water, air, forest, grass sprouting from the ground, when a man's "ego" becomes only a part of the total life stream.

In many respects such an attitude to the creative problem being solved by the artist is connected with nearly pantheistic sensation of the nature when it is perceived as a manifestation of the highest logic and highest mind of "Genesis". As Mashkov recalls, probably the understanding of this everlasting "music of spheres" came to him when his creative ways had lead to the ancient vault of Pskovo-Pechersky monastery. The beauty and spiritual power of the place prompted the artist to create a series of canvases where the temples' architectural expressiveness, the inner world of their inhabitants and the neighbouring landscapes were reflected. The artist has been coming to these places in the course of several years. He serves the wonder of spiritual beauty, depicts the surrounding world in its manifestation of hope, faith and love without any external showing off, modestly and zealously using his own means - abrush and colours.