Page 35 - Studio International - June 1965

Oscar Rabin

All paintings reproduced His commercial work leaves him as full of energy for his spare been left where they are for a minute or two. are still warm from
are by courtesy of time painting as before. His choice of subject is wider. It is usually the touch of human hands and Rabin is richly delighted to find
the Grosvenor Gallery, Moscow. sometimes old and sometimes new. but occasionally he them so. He loves the ordinary things in every home and the way
London, where his looks further afield to cities he has never visited. He has read of in which they never appear quite the same. He gives a hint of
work is on exhibition London and Paris and New York and seen countless pictures of where his work will take him in the future-'More and more I
them but still his interpretation is his own and he admits he would enjoy painting old Russian objects. samovars. icons and oil
rather gain his impressions from written descriptions than from lamps. I love old Russian architecture and the ample shapes of the
photographs or other people's pictures. Because his palette ancient churches. At the same time I find prefabricated buildings
includes much grey and sombre greens and blues and black. in my newest pictures. great white blocks with neat. square
Rabin is often described as gloomy. He explains with a wry smile . windows. We are soon to move into a flat in a building like these
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and I expect the long low house where we spent 13 years will
soon be forgotten·.
Everyone admits that after seeing just a few of Rabin's paint­
ings. you would never confuse them with any other artist's.
Many are certainly not what you would ordinarily choose to
decorate your own home-but however unpromising they appear
at first. they seem all to have remarkable attraction which so
increases with acquaintance that it becomes extremely painful to
part with a painting you have learned to love. This quality even
exerts its pull upon people who frankly dislike his style. his sub­
jects or indeed anything on canvas which is less than 150 years
old. His pictures can be seen in many Moscow homes now and
foreigners who have spent a year or two in Russia as diplomats or
newspaper correspondents frequently take a Rabin painting with
them when they leave. pleased to own such a special souvenir.
Some have even returned to Moscow. taken back with them by
people on a second tour of duty.
The paintings are more travelled than the artist. but word of
them both has spread since 21st February. 1961. when Rabin's
Portrait of an Artist was reproduced in The Observer without
'One can even feel gloomy on a sunny day in a beautiful birch­ mentioning his name. Especially after the 1964 exhibition at the
wood. I don't see the life around me any more gloomily than Grosvenor Gallery his name has appeared in the Western press.
anyone else. I simply have a melancholy soul. Good paintings Rabin is reticent in talking about modern Western art. ·1 know
must be honest and you have to leave a little bit of yourself. of the work of contemporary Western artists only slightly. much as it
your own soul. in each of them·. interests me·. he says. ·1 am always afraid I might get a lasting and
1
Portrait or Amsr·s Wife 1964 Recently Rabin has returned to the still lites of his early classes. incorrect impression of a particular artist or group of artists just
Oil on canvas but they have changed much in twenty years and bear his own from the reproductions I see here. I would like to see the originals
39 X 27½ in. strong stamp. Just as the houses he paints are always more than and then I could talk about them·. Among modern Soviet artists he
2 simple bricks and mortar. and have the life of homes about them. most enjoys 'Korzhev because of his search for colour. Tyshler
Untirled Pamrmg 1961 although their inhabitants are seldom to be seen. so the bread. Pavel Kuznetsov. our famous graphic artists-Favorsky and of.
Oil on Canvas course that grand old man. Konenkov·. Moscow. April. 1965. ■
39 X 31½ in. the bottles and the kettle all belong to living people. They have
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