25/11/2018 Severine Grosjean
The hyperrealism of the artist Izvstan Betuker arises like a photograph. On canvas, he imposes his academism that seals the human representation in an emotional circuit reaching the eye of the viewer. Tarnished by color, bodies and faces that seems to be moving towards an existentialist philosophy. He brings out the glow of twilight, the intensity of black, the brilliance of each person he paints. He appropriates classic portraits that make them timeless. We must stop and take some time to look at the work. The feeling is close between power and sobriety, elegance and mystery. Time is suspended.
From these moods with dark tones crossed by sudden luminous tensions, it is emanated the immanence of the painting. Izvstan places the beings in the world with an intimate glance. With an artistic and human maturity, his works are a plastically philosophical reflection on the position of man in the world as a subjective experience. The works of this artist represent the ongoing investigation into the inner fragility of human existence. From photography, he explores different technical aspects and approaches them to painting. From a personal point of view, he brings out a hidden feeling. He is interested in the individual, his face and his reactions bringing together some changes of the society. He paints the lives of others. His work consists of chronicles of life showing his family, his friends and strangers in daily life. He embodies a generation that uses the portrait with a clinical look upon the humanity. Izvstan Betuker makes important portraits, as the landscapes of his series “Color Fields”, which have a more abstract line. He deconstructs the classical tradition of landscape by focusing on the intensity of the plant Couleus and the forms of a wild urban landscape. With subtle tones, he transmits some emotions with the control he has on his brush. These personal scenes are delivered to the viewer with great affection. We imagine to accompany him in this delivered.
From his sleepy portraits, “The sleepers between life and death”, Izvstan every day brings us back to our status as human beings. He penetrates some part of the unconscious or, in some cases, an aspect of the person, without any authorization. We stay locked in front of the body and the postures ask us about the condition of these people. This relationship to death is legitimate: when it comes to painting, how to distinguish the sleeping body from the dead body? He points out the questions of the intimate, the daily life and the private. It is an intimate watch of the sleepers. We see without being seen.
The color seems free, but it is tamed by the intuition of the artist. His palette of colors between chaos and harmony offers a glimpse of the moment. Izvstan Betuker attacks all the images of his time. Dipped in new technologies in “Drift”, where each person is “sucked” by the screen or lost in this world of full speed or in “Still life made of living things” where there is the inevitably quiet life of inert and dumb things, combining this way antagonistic notions, of a nature where there is life and death; which is dynamic, with a kind of rest for eternity. It creates shifted relationships between plans, which are often confronted.
Izvstan Betuker leads in a maelstrom the iconography of our culture and our time. He sweeps all our references to force us to question a definitive order of our ideas and our values.
Partnership: The Nomad Creative Projects
