Darmstadter Echo 12/23/2006
The article “A Painting of Rhinestones” („Ein Gemälde aus Strass“) published in the Darmstädter Echo.
Automatic translation:
Art and Religion - Alexander Salivontschik Makes a Cemetery Angel Sparkle.
Colors. Vibrant shapes. Light. This angel is not like other angels. Not cute like the figures at the Christmas market, not majestic like the marble figures at the cathedral gate. A little melancholic, like on a 19th-century family grave. But he has left his time in the cemetery behind, and now, at Christmastime, he sparkles in all the colors of the rainbow in a front garden on the Mathildenhöhe: "the angel with the Russian soul," as a neighbor has christened him, the work of Alexander Salivontschik
It's not quite finished yet. It will probably take until the end of the year, says the artist from Belarus. Below, the bronze robe of the over 100-year-old cemetery figure still peeks out from under the layer of glass and acrylic stones that Salivontschik has spread over it. The face and hands will also be colored, probably gold, he muses.
"Originally, the idea was to paint the angel," Salivontschik explains. "But then I had the idea with the colorful glass stones in Cologne Cathedral when I saw decorated figures of saints there, such as a Mary with many necklaces that worshippers had placed around her neck." It's a kind of "painting with stones" that he's covering the angel with—a three-dimensional rhinestone mosaic.
In fact, painting is the true métier of the forty-nine-year-old from Brest-Litovsk, who studied and illustrated book graphics in Moscow, then worked as an art editor in Minsk before coming to the Städelschule in Frankfurt eight years ago. The Mathildenhöhe with its Russian Chapel drew the devout Christian to Darmstadt, where he found contact with a community of artists who work on their pieces around a house on Prinz-Christians-Weg, within sight of the chapel
Angels are a recurring motif in Salivontschik's paintings—angels in the glow of light, angels beneath falling leaves. "Angels represent another, more beautiful world," he says. He sees this other, more beautiful world in reality primarily in childhood, which he perceives as "paradise."
Once the finishing touches are complete, the angel, as currently planned, will ascend to the top floor of the student residence at the corner of Heidelberger and Eschollbrücker Streets to begin its new service as a guardian angel on the equally colorful building. Author: db
Photo caption: Master from the Städelschule: Alexander Salivontschik
Art and Religion - Alexander Salivontschik Makes a Cemetery Angel Sparkle.
Colors. Vibrant shapes. Light. This angel is not like other angels. Not cute like the figures at the Christmas market, not majestic like the marble figures at the cathedral gate. A little melancholic, like on a 19th-century family grave. But he has left his time in the cemetery behind, and now, at Christmastime, he sparkles in all the colors of the rainbow in a front garden on the Mathildenhöhe: "the angel with the Russian soul," as a neighbor has christened him, the work of Alexander Salivontschik
It's not quite finished yet. It will probably take until the end of the year, says the artist from Belarus. Below, the bronze robe of the over 100-year-old cemetery figure still peeks out from under the layer of glass and acrylic stones that Salivontschik has spread over it. The face and hands will also be colored, probably gold, he muses.
"Originally, the idea was to paint the angel," Salivontschik explains. "But then I had the idea with the colorful glass stones in Cologne Cathedral when I saw decorated figures of saints there, such as a Mary with many necklaces that worshippers had placed around her neck." It's a kind of "painting with stones" that he's covering the angel with—a three-dimensional rhinestone mosaic.
In fact, painting is the true métier of the forty-nine-year-old from Brest-Litovsk, who studied and illustrated book graphics in Moscow, then worked as an art editor in Minsk before coming to the Städelschule in Frankfurt eight years ago. The Mathildenhöhe with its Russian Chapel drew the devout Christian to Darmstadt, where he found contact with a community of artists who work on their pieces around a house on Prinz-Christians-Weg, within sight of the chapel
Angels are a recurring motif in Salivontschik's paintings—angels in the glow of light, angels beneath falling leaves. "Angels represent another, more beautiful world," he says. He sees this other, more beautiful world in reality primarily in childhood, which he perceives as "paradise."
Once the finishing touches are complete, the angel, as currently planned, will ascend to the top floor of the student residence at the corner of Heidelberger and Eschollbrücker Streets to begin its new service as a guardian angel on the equally colorful building. Author: db
Photo caption: Master from the Städelschule: Alexander Salivontschik
