Andrei Zadorin, 1960

Андрей Задорин is an Belarusian painter.

In the same way that words are used to create a narrative, Zadorine uses visual images to create atmospheric feeling.

His work is directly addressing the soul.

Poetic and romantic, Zadorine appeals to the viewer by illustrating the vulnerable and precious nature of the human soul.

Memory (particularly drawn from childhood) and the acceptance of the irreversibility of human life are strong underlying currents that drive much of his work.

This requires the viewer's time and attention removed from intellectual enquiry to allow an experience rather than a sensation of his work to manifest.

The majority of Zadorine's paintings consist of a composition of one or more figures in a limited number of poses, often accompanied by an innate object.

Situating his figures within a limited spatial depth, the artist uses a warm, expressive palette to create a sense of intimacy and bright light to direct the viewer's eye within the space.

The space within the painting therefore becomes intensely personal to the figures that inhabit it.

An object or human motif merely serves as an allusion to a feeling, an indication of a memory or mood.

The viewer recognises the atmosphere from their personal experience, demonstrating that the reality of Zadorine's figures is philosophical rather than psychological.

It is not Zadorine's intention to show a story in the way that traditional art does.

Under (and following) Soviet rule, Belarussian art was dominated by dogmatic social realism whereby figures within a composition held a narrative role.

Zadorine broke away from these expectations of art, choosing to paint neither narrative nor still life - he paints what lies between.

He is painting the silent and still atmosphere that is a moment within a greater story, an emotion that exists beyond a narrative.

This silence in his work is the important factor in creating the balance between melodrama and melancholy, a moment of harmony between reflection and a tone of optimistic anticipation.

Zadorine's work has been likened to historical and contemporary art and film.

Citing the sculpture of Alberto Giacometti as an influence, Zadorine identifies with the attempt to portray a soul through an abstracted figure.

Likewise, he was drawn to the evocatively melodramatic atmosphere of Rembrandt's paintings though only initially having seen black and white reproductions.

Thematically comparisons can be drawn from 1960's Italian cinema.

The work of Frederico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni shared an interest in melancholic childhood memory and in capturing mood beyond narrative.

In terms of technique, his work is commonly and paradoxically compared to photography.

Zadorine can create a painting that is reminiscent of a photograph both visually and atmospherically but is, in reality, still a painting.

He paints the characteristics of a photograph (sepia colours and tone, scratched surface and creases) in order to demonstrate the balance between fiction and reality.

Zadorine paints as a sculptor, a photographer and a filmmaker all at the same time without losing his love of the medium of paint.