Nickolay Matrionin is a not unknown member of the Leningrad underground of 1970-s. He performed in experimental theatres, wrote non-Soviet prose, made photos and, in the whole, spent a life unworthy of a Soviet citizen. In 1967, he took part in a performance of the studio of the Leningrad State University which was prohibited – and the studio was closed after it. In 1974, his story was published by K. Kuzminsky in the self-publishing collection “Lepta” (Mite). In 1974-1976, he read chapters of his novel “Novel for the Emperor” in the kitchens of his friends. Nickolay Matrionin began to make photos “meaningly” in the middle of 1970-s. He created portraits of his friends – artists, poets, photographers of the Leningrad underground, Leningrad landscapes and organized still-lives. In 1977, in the flat of S. Segitov Nickolay Matrionin hold the first show of objectless photo in the city.
In the whole, photo quests by Nickolay Matrionin were aimed to the liberation of photo from professional dogmas, conventions, stereotypes and complexes. In his landscapes he came to the eschatological problem of the “joint of times”, in still-lives he invented another reality, inserting drama into life of useless things of unclear target, and in abstract photos he claimed for all-sufficient artistic reality which had no relation to the “objective” one - to fix that one the photo was created.
In 1999, Nickolay Matrionin began his four-parts cycle of collages “Expedition Report” (Altera Aqua, 2000; Altera Terra, 2001; Another Sky, 2002; Fire, 2003). Each of the works of this project was made on a piece of standard wall-paper. On the wall-paper he glued PVC films of different sizes, shapes and colours. With a fleeting glance the style of these works associates with geometric abstraction, however, the expression combination of colours, illogical shapes and irrationality of compositions prove that we have rather spontaneous creativity here which expresses itself in the purest form in abstract expressionism.
At the show there are 50 photos of 1970 – 1980-s: still-lives, landscapes, portraits, abstract photos, reports and a cycle of abstract works of 2007 made on round tables. Valeriy VALRAN |
