The works of Evgeni Dybsky simultaneously combine several types of plastic art, belonging to the space of painting, drawings, semi-installation, and sculpture at the same time. The artist changes the idea of the existence of a painting in two dimensions, going beyond the plane of the canvas or another support, achieving three-dimensionality and experimenting with the chemical and physical properties of various materials and their combinations.
Through all his career Dybsky continues “Translation of Time” series which carries and reflects the main idea and philosophy of his works – the transcendental character of art object which accumulates time during its creation and existence and encloses in its body compressed information and the transformations being recorded permanently with the flow of time. The artist avoids giving the titles to his works, they carry only numbers and create a kind of mathematical sequence with numbers growing from the beginning towards infinity.
The “Tintoretto Included” series, which the artist has been working on from 2013 to the present, is a part of the “Translation of Time” project, which unites all the artist’s works since 1992.
In 2013 in Venice Scuola Grande di San Rocco Dybsky discovered a new perception of Tintoretto’s chiaroscuro techniques as a medium for creating spatial construction of his own works. “Chiaroscuro” literally means 'light-dark” and is implemented by using clear tonal contrasts between dark and light areas of the painting which gives a vivid impression of the three-dimensionality.
The creations of the Italian master are only a pretext for their visual interpretation, a conventional form, and the basis for constructing a composition in the multidimensional technique characteristic of Evgeni Dybsky. Works from the “Tintoretto Included” series continue the numerical sequence formed from the numbering of works used by the artist instead of titles.
In the compositions of this series, the author continues experiments with form, colorful matter, synthesis of techniques, creation of three-dimensionality and use of the properties of unprimed canvas.
In the works from “Tintoretto Included” series, entitled “TTXVII #37”, “TTXVII #38”, “TTXVII #49”, and shown as a part the exhibition, backlighting, one of the classic lighting techniques in painting, finds a new expression. Using the property of an unprimed canvas to transmit light, Dybsky transforms the backlight from a conventional pictorial form into a real physical effect created by the movement of light.
Depending on the location of the light source in relation to the work, the areas of light and shadow and their ratio change, which creates the impression of a “negative” effect. When presented as a light installation, Dybsky’s series creates a space for aesthetic and historical reflections about the connections between visualization, perception, and philosophical meaning of light in art history.
The exhibition also includes small format works and self-portraits of the artist, created in the same period (2016 -2023) with his signature techniques and inspired by the astonishing Tintoretto’s chiaroscuro.
In the context of the exhibition “Tintoretto Included” Maen Florin’s sculptures, just as Dybsky’s canvases, enter the game of interpretation and associations. Both artists have personal attitude and connections to the artistic heritage of Renaissance. The group of the heads in ceramics from “Commedia” series and the busts “On the Wall” by Maen Florin represent a gallery of personages which recall a strong association with multi-figure compositions and portraits by Tintoretto.
In contrast to Tintoretto’s portraits, created as evidence of high social position and the wealth of the depicted person, Maen Florin aims to disclose the fragility and weakness of a human being in his exposure to the external world. She opposes psychological evaluation to the social one and creates one more dimension of the existence of the same personality.
The archetypes visualized by Maen Florin through their timeless appearance make a direct link with the epoch of Tintoretto and act as contemporary, models and revived personages of Renaissance masters.
Maen Florin’s creations are not portraying a specific person, each character has different reference to existing people, forming a kind of “common portrait” but immersed in his own internal space of emotions and thoughts.
“Maen Florin aims to go a step further than just depicting a person. She searches for his inner psyche, she lives entirely in his world of thoughts and feelings, she aims to unmask the motions of his soul and his deepest aspirations. The glaze she uses to paint the heads give additional expression to their features. It is fascinating to witness how the artist succeeds in portraying the emotions and character traits of each head subtly and urgently. She enables us to interpret the story she has conceived to every of them.” (Veerle Van Durme).
The world of Maen Florin’s personages forms a symbolic theater where human drama or human comedy unfolds. Ceramic heads remind us of the comedians resting between spectacles and waiting for a new show to perform. Characters or actors of this show seem to be familiar because of their generalized appearance and resemblance to a group of different persons. They are immobile and calm, but we feel the energy which comes from the interior tension and suspense. Maen Florin express through the clay’s shape and glaze paint the integrity of the internal world masked by the faces. This world is filled with thoughts and emotions, hopes and fears, joy, and melancholy.
“My characters often appear suspended, melancholy, in introspective apparitions. I try to capture deep feelings in the expressions on their faces. When you look into their heads, a whole life appears. You can imagine the character’s life and feelings, their torments, failures and hopes. The heads are not portraits, but archetypes. Melancholy lurks behind their closed eyes; they are the ambivalence of our position in the world: monstrous and beautiful, strong and fragile,” – the artist says.
