Belaya Glina
Oil on Canvas
Ivan was born in Belaya Glina, Russia in 1918. This rural Russian area was the home to many peasant families. After the fall of the Russian monarchy and the rise of Stalin, areas like this became even more remote and underdeveloped. People struggled with life. They survived by raising crops and by working in Communist factories or communes. Poverty was the only life they knew.
This painting was highly influenced by the famous British artist Laurence S. Lowry (1887-1976). He painted British industrial towns and cities, and he painted the working class. Lowry is famous for his matchstick men. His characters are long and tall, slender structures and much like common matches. This style is known as simplified art where the simplicity enhances the overall starkness of the scene.
Lowry and Garikow shared very similar lives even though Garikow was born into poverty while Lowry was not. Both men were formally educated and classically trained at renowned Art schools. Interestingly, each artist claimed that loneliness and dissatisfaction gave them the ability to become master painters. In short, they were deprived some of life's simple pleasures, namely happiness.
Painting a scene in this simplified style is at times more difficult than to paint a detailed, realistic rendering. Only a versatile and well trained artist could switch styles like this effortless and with great confidence.
We are drawn into this work by the horse and cart on the left side as it approaches the city. We see a peasant man working in his yard growing crops for food. A mother and son stroll up an empty and lonely street towards other people making their way to the city. The tracks on the road are signs of farmer's wagons and carts carrying crops and food toward the city. Reflections of the time remind us of the hard life these people endured.
The simplicity in the style reflects the simplicity of Ivan's people. In the distance we see a more detailed and complex appearance of the city buildings, maybe a dream of things to come. Yet, gray skies, gray buildings and gray lives add a sense of dull neutrality to the scene. A touch of sadness, perhaps, for the viewer as Ivan shows us that, indeed, no matter how difficult, life goes on.
The painting has Garikow's hand written note on the back in Old Russian explaining that this painting was his home village, and it represents the simple life of the people. |
