Dmitry Krasnopevtsev (1925-1995)

The first exhibition of works by Dmitry Krasnopevtsev took place in the flat of the great musician and serious collector, Sviatoslav Richter. A renowned aesthete and polymath, Krasnopevtsev, along with Vladimir Weisberg, was a master of Russian 'metaphysical still life'.

Although his pieces have a number of definite themes, Krasnopevtsev never created a disctinct series of works. One of his themes, characteristic of the 1960s, is that of wrapped objects, particularly beloved by metaphysicists and surrealists. Krasnopevtsev's still lifes (nature morte) are not completely dead, they live their own lives, hidden from the viewer's eyes as in the present work Wrapped objects (1963). The hidden contents of the packages and parcels, whose strange shapes could turn out to be living things, attract particular attention and interest. Were they wrapped or bound? Is the wrapping paper for protection from external influences or an attempt to hide something from the outside world?

Executed on hardboard, the monochrome composition is one of a series of works, the creation of which led the artist to the cherished dream of every metaphysicist: to comprehend the world. In his diaries he wrote: Having tried all available means of getting to know the object, looking at it from all angles, every available point of view, staring at the interior and inspecting, although mentally, the form of the object from within, as if it were hollow, weighing everything up... Having done this, I know that I only have a superficial knowledge of the object.