Artist Kozikov Anatoly Illarionovich

03/25/1931, der. Boroviki Smolensky district – 9.12.1986, Smolensk,

artist, member of the Union of Artists of the USSR (1965).

Graduated from Riga Architectural and Art College (1951), Yelets Art College (1956).

Participant of the exhibition "Soviet Russia" (1957) and young artists dedicated to the World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow.

Since 1946, A. Kozikov has been living in Smolensk, where he graduated from a vocational school with a degree in polygraphy. In 1948, he entered the Riga Art and Architecture School, which he graduated from in 1951. In 1953, he entered the Yelets Art School, where the professional views of the future artist were finally formed.
Once in the class of Viktor Semyonovich Sorokin, a wonderful landscape painter, a student of S. Gerasimov, Anatoly learns the wisdom of visual literacy, where the problems of color occupied a special place. The diploma was defended in 1956 with the painting "1905" with an excellent grade.

The artist's exhibition activity begins in 1955 in Smolensk. Being a constant participant in all regional exhibitions, A. Kozakov exhibited his works at republican and zonal exhibitions.
Since 1965 A. Kozikov has been a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR.

Not all of the artist's works are presented at this exhibition. Many works are in the Houses of Culture of collective farms and state farms, in museums and funds of the Ministry of Culture. But also from those works that are presented at the exhibition, it is possible to draw a conclusion about the interests of the artist, his worldview and those trends in his work that occupy the painter.

It is a pity that we do not see at this exhibition a wonderful work - "Landscape with magpies", painted by the artist in 1970. It reflected all the love for native nature. Solved in silvery converging tones, a small-sized landscape can decorate any exposition of the museum of painting.

No less attractive is the landscape "Svirskaya Church" of 1970, solved in brown-gray tones, thick in tone, the landscape attracted everyone's attention at the Moscow exhibition of 1971. The feeling of the ancient Smolensk land with its novelty is convincingly conveyed by the artist.
Among the best works of A. Kozakov are: "Autumn day" 1965, "Evening in the Weekdays" 1969, "Winter. Vyazovenka" 1969, "Birches" 1970, "Threshold" 1970, "Still life with a bow" 1969 and others.
It is difficult to talk about painting, it must be seen and we will give the viewer this opportunity to make his personal judgment about the side of the artist, which is called the result of his search, his experiences and professional skill. The author of these lines would like to say a few more words about other qualities of A. Kozakov. I often have to work next to him, go to villages to collect material for paintings. A distinctive feature of Anatoly is his extraordinary modesty in judging his works. He is always not happy with the result he achieves. He is constantly tormented by the consciousness that he has not put everything into his work, what he feels when looking at nature. And this sometimes leads to endless redoing of what has already been done and sometimes done perfectly. Looking at him in the process of work, you see how he tortures himself by searching for the best combination of color relations and compositional persuasiveness.

Not only great coloristic talent, but also titanic work is inherent in A. Kozikov. Before starting another landscape, he looks for it in nature for a long time and repeatedly. He can wander alone for hours, gaining impressions of the surrounding nature. Having chosen a certain motif, he looks at it for a long time, looking for clear color relations for him alone.

A. Kozikov loves music very much. He plays stringed instruments. And this love is manifested in his works. There is always a melody in them, quiet and sincere. The artist does not like bravura and sharp color contrasts. There is no cry in his works. This is, as a rule, a leisurely story about what he saw in nature. The story, conveyed in color, is sometimes restrained, but, as a rule, complex with the finest valera. Therefore, it is better to watch the artist's work up close, then all the richness of his palette is revealed.

This fascination with subtle variations of color without taking into account the contrast of large color ratios is to some extent the weak side of the artist's visual language. But already in the last works, the artist begins to overcome his excessive fascination with a close color. This is due to the transition of the artist sometimes to large-scale works, where the contrast of large relationships is inevitable so that the painting does not lose its plastic expressiveness.

Anatoly Kozikov is at the time of his creative maturity and we can expect from him interesting, sincere, and exciting works that will decorate our exhibitions

The main theme of creativity is the landscape of the Smolensk region, he painted portraits and still lifes, genre compositions. Since 1974, he has worked annually in the Sloboda (village of Przhevalskoye, Demidovsky district). K. is a participant of regional, zonal, republican, All–Union exhibitions, the author of three personal exhibitions.