In focus — Montreal / vie des arts 219
Feel the moment: the power of paint

Painting was once a means of social documentation, whether civil, religious or political. Long ago, painters used their talents to describe details. Draperies fell seductively under their unerring brush strokes. Fabrics came alive, whether a soft velvet or a gleaming satin. Oil paintings were a reverential record, not only of daily life (ie: Hieronymus Bosch's paintings of lively country feasts) but of its leaders (for example, the idealized portrait of Louis XIV by Hyacinthe Rigaud). Then came photography. Reacting to this new medium's alacrity and ease in representing the moment, a dire comment was amade. Early in the 20th century French artist Paul Delaroche declared "painting is dead.'' Today photography is still, as one says, 'a major player'. From Montreal, the Sanchez brothers' photos start at $20,000. Edward Burtynsky's photographic series sell out at the same price. But painting is still far from dead. The painterly tradition not only lives but thrives, both in oils and acrylics. Costa Dvorezky is a painter in oils. A young Russian artist, he has sold his paintings in Switzerland and Germany. He is represented by galleries in the U.S., Montreal and Toronto. Academically trained in Moscow, the artist revels in the human form as it dances and jumps across his sensual, paint-dripped canvasses. Each of his works is painterly in more than one sense of the word. The backgrounds are monochromatic: They are thickly layered with the "joy of paint''. But these backdrops are simply the setting. The artist's real talent is the three-dimensionality of the torso - "my first love is sculpture''. Costa Dvorezky recently offered his odes to the body at his solo exhibition at Galerie d'Este. His canvases portrayed gestures full of exuberance - a moment in time. In one work, a boy soars alone across a bright orange 'sky'. The colours and gestures convey a wonderful sense of play. The mood immediately felt was a day by an 'old swimming hole', with the loud, hot colour - orange - suggestive of humid summer daze. In another work, three boys leap together. The muscles of the bodies glisten as they somersault into the unknown. Indeed, Costa excels in portraying the elements of the human body. When one stands back to admire the large canvases, the minutiae of the musculature is perfect: the rendering is realistic to the smallest detail. Texturally thick brushstrokes depict straining tendons and muscles. Yet Costa uses "only a large brush'' for all his works, somehow creating the perfection of each limb. And then there are his horses. Once again, the artist uses a flat, paint-dripped background for his fabulous horse heads. Like the bodies, the heads are powerful: The details are perfect. The physicality - the 'feel' of the moment - is totally there. You are in front of a real horse. You are watching a group of boisterous boys hurtle into yet another summer lake with their inimitable childhood optimism. A sense of spontaneity is evident. Costa's bold treatment makes you feel the moment - through the power of paint.