Auction has ended
Being apart even within non-official art surrounding of the 80’s Purygin appeared on the world scene of art after the legendary Sotheby’s auction in Moscow. This artworks refer to the period when the artist moved to New York.
The painting «The Birth of Venus» is made in traditional Purygin iconography. The central part is taken by a mythological creature, here it is Venus. She was born from the sea foam and swam in the shell to the Cyprus seaside. The goddess on Purygin’s painting can hardly remind of the classic figure of Venus. She is surrounded by symbols of fruitfulness like shells, watermelons. There are chimeras creatures of different colours with human faces twisted around her and she is the symbol of eternal femininity. Women figures are really important in Purygin’s art world. His mythological space is inhabited with fantastic characters, e.g. the female creature «Pipa Puryginskaya» is the antithesis to feminine Venus. Phantasmagoric aspect is often makes it possible to compare artworks by Purygin with the world of Hieronymus Bosch.
Purygin combines the language of iconography and folk art in his artworks, that is why Venus appears as some chthonian god painted in a rough, primitive manner. He underlines fruitful power of the goddess of love by ignoring the rules of perspective: the space surrounds her from all four sides, there is brush and palette, maybe this is the way she created everything. “The Birth of Venus” just like other artworks of this period is characterized by deep blue-green grade and bright almost fluorescent colour. The sides of the painting are covered with flutes, plants and different things which reminds of stigmas of icons. V
