Yury Alexandrovich Bubnov was an artist and restorer, an expert on tempera painting. He graduated from the Maxim Gorky Art School in Palekh and the painting department of the Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. For many years, he taught at the Art and Graphics department of the Chuvash State Pedagogical Institute, at Children’s Art School No. 2, and the Cheboksary Art College. He painted churches in the Kirov and Nizhny Novgorod regions and icons for churches in Cheboksary and Tsivilsk, created the iconostasis of the Church of the Archangel Michael in Cheboksary, and restored dozens of paintings from the collection of the Chuvash State Art Museum.
The painting “Poster, Poster”, a portrait of the artist Yevgeny Sizov, goes beyond telling the dramatic story of one person and explores the drama of the entire generation that lived through a time of change. Graphic designers were in great demand in the Soviet Union: there was always a need for hand-painted movie posters, propaganda posters, and office door signs. The same was true of interior design solutions for cafes, restaurants, and other public places. Everything was fine before computers appeared. Graphic designers who used traditional techniques in their work were suddenly faced with a threatening competitor that was faster, cheaper and more accurate. Advertising and interior design were less about art and more about the craft. Many of the artists were unable to navigate the new reality and were left without a job. One of them was Yevgeny Sizov.
In this painting, we can see a lonely figure standing with a closed posture and an absent-minded stare amid a cold blue space. The painter uses a striking spatial effect: the clouds and the realistically painted open sky turn out to be merely an illusion, created with wallpaper in a windowless room. The ladder behind the man resembles the fire escape in Soviet apartment buildings where the hatches between the floors were usually sealed and did not open. The light-colored rectangle on the floor, which might be mistaken for the light from the open door overhead, is only a “Stop” poster.
Behind Sizov’s back is the inscription “Exit” but no actual door to leave through. Unfortunately, in real life, Yevgeny Sizov also never managed to find a way out and his place in the new world.
The painting “Poster, Poster”, a portrait of the artist Yevgeny Sizov, goes beyond telling the dramatic story of one person and explores the drama of the entire generation that lived through a time of change. Graphic designers were in great demand in the Soviet Union: there was always a need for hand-painted movie posters, propaganda posters, and office door signs. The same was true of interior design solutions for cafes, restaurants, and other public places. Everything was fine before computers appeared. Graphic designers who used traditional techniques in their work were suddenly faced with a threatening competitor that was faster, cheaper and more accurate. Advertising and interior design were less about art and more about the craft. Many of the artists were unable to navigate the new reality and were left without a job. One of them was Yevgeny Sizov.
In this painting, we can see a lonely figure standing with a closed posture and an absent-minded stare amid a cold blue space. The painter uses a striking spatial effect: the clouds and the realistically painted open sky turn out to be merely an illusion, created with wallpaper in a windowless room. The ladder behind the man resembles the fire escape in Soviet apartment buildings where the hatches between the floors were usually sealed and did not open. The light-colored rectangle on the floor, which might be mistaken for the light from the open door overhead, is only a “Stop” poster.
Behind Sizov’s back is the inscription “Exit” but no actual door to leave through. Unfortunately, in real life, Yevgeny Sizov also never managed to find a way out and his place in the new world.
