Petr Ossovsky

Pyotr Ossovsky (1925-2015) was destined to live a long life and create until his final days. Exploring his artistic legacy, we can trace the emergence of what would be later defined as the ‘austere style’, from the process of searching for the artist’s individual creative path and choosing themes, characters, as well as bold colours and lines. The works of Ossovsky may well be the most vivid examples of this style in Soviet art. Ossovsky constantly turned and returned to the topics of predilection for representatives of the austere style: ‘the poetry of everyday work’, his contemporaries, their energy and courage devoid of any pathos. It is particularly interesting to observe the transformation and evolution of the austere style throughout the body of work of one of its creators and founders.

The collection of the Art Russe Foundation includes the diptych ‘Boats’ (2012 – 2013, oil on canvas, 150×180), which has been selected to adorn one of the labels of Chateau La Grace Dieu des Prieurs, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2018 by Art Russe. In a way, the diptych encapsulates Ossovsky’s memories about his works created in 1989-1990 in the Pskov region, with which the artist’s life and art were inextricably linked since the mid-1960s.

The artist’s restrained colour palette and powerful, laconic lines are immediately recognizable in this work. However, here Pyotr Ossovsky is not just a mature artist, but also a philosopher. The endless shining sky above the sharp silhouettes of boats, where the cold northern sun dissolves into the Pskov lakes, is austere indeed. Created by Ossovsky in his final years, the diptych captured the silence, wisdom, and majestic peace epitomizing the austere style with seventy years of work of a remarkable master behind it.

Pyotr Ossovsky – photo www.rah.ru, The Russian Academy of Arts.