Oleg Tselkov has lived in Paris since 1977 and he is the only one from the artists emigrants, who has received the honorary "Triumph" award. Heroes of Tselkov's paintings are well remembered — once having seen, will never forget …

Artist Statement:

« ...When I've suddenly seen this mug, I realized: it's not a face of somebody, but a face of mankind in whole. Actually I accidentally put off the mask from all the faces at once. I didn't task to "tear away the masks", and consequently I've seen not something good or bad, but something real, genuine, that we've got under our skin and what brings us together. I can't have a claim on somebody in person, but I have a claim on the masses humiliating, torturing, killing each other. These claims I have the right to have on the past, on the present and on the future..."
Tselkov's paintings are appreciable, prestigious and, at last, influential. In 1977 the artist has been compelled to emigrate from the USSR. Having settled in France, Tselkov has rushed to study museum collections, exhibitions, salons, literature … All these impressions have helped him definitively to believe in the light of his star. «My character, appeared in Russia, continues to live on foreign land, matured», - said the artist in one of the interviews. Characterizing his work, Oleg Tselkov says: " ... When I saw this mug for the first time, it became clear: this person was not the concrete one, and mankind in general, in whole"

Tselkov's works are in the following museum collections:
The Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam, Holland
The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia
The State Fine Arts Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia
The State Russian Museum of Arts, St Petersburg, Russia
The State Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia
Ulster Museum, Belfast, Ireland
Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland
Yakohoma Art Museum of Tokyo, Japan
Zimmerli Art Museum, New Jersey
Duke University Museum of Art, North Carolina

Source:
http://www.behance.net/gallery/OLEG-TSELKOV-XXI/2111236

Born in 1934

Artist Statement:
"…After a decade of hard and fruitless work, in 1960, I did my first significant work, painted my first-for the first time, I did something on my own - picture with two faces, THE PORTRAIT,. With this work, my, so to say, development as an artist starts. Accidentally, for the first time, I - I was the first one who did it - pulled down "a face from a face", in the image and likeness "and so THE FACE". I was astonishing. As if it were a portrait, yet not a portrait of a certain person, but rather a universal one, a portrait of all in one face, one depiction - and it was terribly familiar. I did not have a task "to pull down the masks"; and what I saw, was not 'bad", or "good"; it was more than that. It was more familiar, more real. And this face, or rather these two faces there were imprinted millions of years than mankind had lived in the past. And there also were as many years - in an impenetrable future. Right away, - right away! - I realised that I was shown the way. All normal means of an art of drawing - the form-came right away - too simple - primitive drawing, spectral, "eternal", burning colour - plain- smooth - contrasting shade - and the most important - PATTERN s main principle. Anything free, impromptu, unnecessary was excluded; no "genius things"; no "inspirations"; no "explosions"; no spectacular brush waves. Anonymity in completeness. Smoothness of faceless artisan ….

….For over 40 years, day after day, I am painting my countless canvas, one after another. Something changed in them, with time, coming pout of the light, or sinking into darkness.. but always - always! - these faces, these PORTRAITS OF FACES, repeat themselves."

Oleg Tselkov
Paris. October, 2002
"There is no satire in Oleg Tselkov's paintings, let alone, social satire. They have nothing to say about the time and place in which they live. They are of a different nature. They are more about physiology. They emanate from the dark and sinister things lurking at the bottom of any man's soul. If you wish, a more apt literary analogy would be with Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The character releases what is hidden in his conscious or even subconscious, and it turns out to be neither beautiful, nor brilliant but hateful and evil. The artist opens up a vent releasing the monsters of his soul , giving these phantoms shape and image, he detaches them from himself thus getting rid of them and redeeming himself. Indeed, these paintings are offered to the viewer as a medicinal remedy. A cure that is good for the author should also be beneficial for his audience". Eric Bulatov

"Oleg Tselkov is the creator of an astonishing cocktail of the 21st century. This explosive mixture of Rembrant's colouring and Rubens magnificent flesh, multiplied by Russian folly and the might of the barbaric spirit". Mikhail Shemyakin