THE TSUKANOV ART COLLECTION

 
 

Belenok Petr

 “Detailed observations of the everyday person do not interest me; I observe the world and its problems from a neutral position in outer space.”

1938 - 1991

Petr Ivanovich Belenok has a special place in the alternative avant-garde culture of the 1960's as the acclaimed pioneer of photorealistic strategies. His discoveries first appeared almost at the same time as European photorealism and hyperrealism of the post-war American school came into existence. In jest, he called his own artistic system 'panic realism' as his compositions were brimming with countless human figures escaping and flying. They inhabit cosmic spaces, pursued by phantoms, Medusa-like plasmas, multiplying like clowns in a fantasy film.


'During the last few years spent in Moscow, the paintings of Petr Belenok gradually pushed aside those of other artists. The paintings mainly depicted a modern view of a man, overtaken by unknown cataclysms. Men are running, escaping, above them plates or rings are being torn apart, sometimes it is molten rock, magma, an extraterrial substance, part of a firmament cleaved apart', from the memoirs of E. Limonov 'Moscow Bohemia'
 
The artist's work can be found in the following museums and collections:
   
Contemporary Art Museum
Phenomenon
Kolodzei Art Foundation