Аркадий Ескин

 any manifestations of individuality. Such tolerant relationships did not subdue, did not interfere, did not break the human who was taken for what he is with all his weakness and foibles, allowed everyone to indulge in his favourite occupation, created an atmosphere for artistic work. All the children in the Yeskins’ large family have chosen an artistic road in the lives. Irina used to be the artist’s permanent and principal model. One of her latest portraits by Yeskin was particularly dear to Irina Niko- layevna (“The portrait of Ira”, ). He painted it when she was already gravely ill. Arkady de- picted her such as she looked when she showed up at their first date: slim, wearing a dazzlingly red dress, with a tumbler of red wine in her hand, heeding and understanding, a little jaded, but so desired. On her large face with broad cheekbones there is something inherent to the steppe, something primordial which fascinates and remains in memory for good. In her eyes looking at the spectator there is so much love and kindness, that you can’t help feeling the painter’s pain and his relentless concern for the life of his dearest one. Biblical, evangelical images: “Crying Pe- ter”, “Judas’s kiss”, “Herod’s death”, ‘Carrying the cross”…When turning to eternal themes Arkady strives to bring a symbolic image maxi- mally close to the modern onlooker. He follows the way when classical images are perceived as though they were the painter’s contemporaries. To accept and understand them one should turn to the artist’s own personality, his steady predi- lections and values. He paints “The last supper” behind the window frames of a Kumak rustic house. We often saw this whitewashed hut in Yeskin’s studies, it is part of his earthly human life. If the creative process is connected with something seen all of a sudden, then it takes a long and sometimes painful way from fixing the first impression to creating an integral composition. Yeskin’s interpretation does not predetermine the ordinariness of a drama, on the contrary elevating it to the heights of great spiritual and emotional fervour. It means participation in the event. The tragedy of treason is developing now, beside us, and it is now that we get answers to the ethical and spiritual questions while experiencing the event personally. Yeskin consciously discards documentary details and entourage, but handling well-known objects and images nonetheless he reaches in his work the culmination of an event crucial for the whole humanity. Separate fragments of hands and eyes appearing from the mass of human bodies become sensitive accents of a Christian tragedy developing behind village windows. Many biblical subjects, for example, “Susan and the old men” were worked out by the artist several times, foreshortened differently as to the perception of the images, searching for the way to treat personality. His images are convincing in their universality, and even outside linking with a concrete subject, they refer to the eternal human values. In Yeskin’s art somehow or other everything is felt and linked with his own life experience and everything is as that simple and clear as it can be in the world of music or poetry, in the space of genuine art. In his self-portraits there is certain tiredness after enthusiastic work and a desire to understand the nature of creative cleansing, the culminating height of a creative action. To render something objectively — that is what professional school teaches, but imbue it with feeling, passions, emotions — that is what only a true artist can. How does it happen? It seems to us that it is a mystery which is open only to the elect… I B , ar t hi s tor i an