Sergey Alexandrovich Sharov Born in 1945 in Sverdlovsk. In 1969, he graduated from the Moscow Architectural Institute. He has been engaged in painting since 1965. Member of the Moscow branch of the Union of Artists since 1985. Participant of the art exhibition "Twenty Moscow Artists" (1978-87) and exhibitions ARS-1 and ARS-2 in Moscow, 1988. Solo exhibition in London, 1989. His works are owned by private collectors from Russia, USA, Japan, Sweden, Germany and other countries. The first thought that comes to mind when you see Sergey Sharov's works is that he is a born artist. In this era of rampant dilettantism, marked by an inability to ground a canvas or draw a human figure, he remains true to aesthetic principles inherited from the old masters and skillfully masters the art of painting. He can convey the firmness of stone, the softness of down, the texture of silk and human flesh, the transparency of air and the flow of water. This is not illusory kitsch, but rather solid and serene mastery of a master. Sergey Sharov is one of the founders of the M'ARS gallery, the first independent contemporary art gallery in Russia. In this gallery, technical mastery is highly valued. Paradoxically, the tastefully and lovingly depicted world he creates on canvas is actually just an illusion, something between dream and reality, a phantasmagorical vision reminiscent of Bergman's "Wild Strawberries". If you think about it, dreams can become reality more than life itself. It is enough to study the art of different epochs and peoples, this accurate chronicle of human history, to see that all this forms a chain of the wildest, most unreal sagas, starting from primitive man and ending with our days. What makes Sergey Sharov's work special, in his own words, is that he sets himself the goal of reconciling the irreconcilable - "to create a union of dialectics and metaphysics", resolving their conflict in the painted image.It is not surprising that he succeeds in this. A specialist in medieval demonology, he whimsically combines it with the early European avant-garde of de Chirico and Magritte. His works are filled with literary and artistic reminiscences; he is not ashamed of them and does not hide them. They are part of the natural language of art, the language through which the artist reveals his complex allegorical thoughts to the initiated; as for the uninitiated, those people who love simplistic art, he is not willing to stoop to their level or make any effort to make his work more accessible to them. In the history of art, there are great subjects that have been taken up in every era and will never be exhausted. One of these subjects, passed down to us from the Middle Ages, is "The Temptation of St. Anthony". The struggle between Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, symbolized by the opposition of the Saint and raging demons, has always attracted artists over the centuries, each of whom has brought their own special meaning to this theme. Sergei Sharov also paid tribute to this theme. In the collection of the M'ARS gallery, there is an amazing panel, drawn by him in pencil, depicting the struggle of the saint with demons. This complex composition of dozens of whimsical figures, in which the artist manifests himself like his favorite Bosch. Among these figures, we also find those that were unknown in the Middle Ages - for example, a combination of human and machine forms - a cybernetic nightmare of the 20th century. Undoubtedly, this is every step of our historical progress. They hide in the cast iron structures of the GUM building in "Early Morning", emerge in the foreground of the "Mansion", frolic on a fire extinguisher in "Emergence". We also often encounter ichthys, the fish - an early Christian symbol of Christ or the human soul... But relevance, even in a historical context, is just one of the meanings, one of the finest layers of Sharov's creativity. Like the masters of the Renaissance, he creates his paintings...According to the principle of multi-layering, similar to a Russian matryoshka doll: behind each layer hides another, deeper idea. The aesthetics of the Renaissance demanded that a true work of art not be one-dimensional, but have several layers of meaning: factual (historical), allegorical, morally instructive, and finally religious, spiritual. Sharov's works are closely related to this pattern and can be interpreted in all four of the above-mentioned categories. As an example, let's look at "The Mansion," which is clearly a key painting in the "Moscow Capriccio" series (which includes "Early Morning / The Mansion / Bathhouse / Fire Station / Moscow Courtyard / Emergence / The Last Castle"). This painting depicts the bright and noisy atmosphere of the NEP era in the 1920s, but on the other hand, it is full of allegorical statements. The fish is not only a symbol of Christ or the human soul, but also a symbol of metal (silver), the moon, a cold melancholic temperament (bourgeois). The primus is not only an attribute of the disorganization of life in the post-revolutionary period, so praised by Zoshenko, but also a symbol of the fire of worldly passions that consumes the human soul. The unusual "bestiary" on the second-floor balcony personifies the seven deadly sins, leading a dance to the sounds of Death's violin. Opposite Death, a flock of birds (symbolizing purity, soaring upwards) listen to Velimir Khlebnikov, a poet-prophet, an eccentric and unassuming man, reading his poems (by the way, he has a poem about birds). This painting has another meaning - deep, naturally philosophical (Nikolai Zabolotsky, the artist's favorite poet). The four elements are depicted from top to bottom: air - water - fire - earth, but in this realm of absurdity, their natural hierarchy is disrupted, so fire passes through the hourglass (time) to become earth, dust, dissipating into nothingness... We could continue our interpretations and guesses, as the artist provides us with a lot of material to do so.Bots, but we have shown enough to demonstrate the intention and depth of his concepts. Another aspect of his creativity, which often goes unnoticed, is humor, which largely softens the tense atmosphere of his works. Here the artist also follows in the footsteps of the old masters: when they grew tired of serious themes, they painted demons surrounding Saint Anthony, which were more humorous than frightening. In conclusion, let's discuss the architectural structures that form the basis of all of Sergey Sharov's works. Educated as an architect, he meticulously selects proportions, using the "Golden Mean" principle in the best traditions of architecture, carefully depicting every detail of the molding, every crack in the wall. According to him, each of his paintings starts with the idea of a building. Moreover, every building he draws actually exists. The remarkable Price Shcherbatov House in the painting "Manor" (the artist lived there in a communal apartment with his family after the war) still stands on the corner of the Garden Ring and New Arbat. The "Moscow Courtyard" is actually the gates on Solyanka Street; once there was a basement there, where prisoners were distributed to prisons. This underground was known to locals as "Under the Angel." The "Bath Palace" is a swimming pool at the Likhachev Plant, and the fire tower still stands next to the Sokolniki metro station. Who knows, maybe one day, the guides of the Mars Museum of Contemporary Art will offer visitors a special tour of "Sharov's Moscow."
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