Composition # 178 Painting

Iskan paints emotional geometric abstractions oil on canvas. Iskan is an abstractionist artist with a penchant for bright colors. Born into a family of schoolteachers in 1956 in Tiraspol, at that time a town in Moldavia, now the capital of breakaway Transnistria, as a kid he was exposed to a Jewish environment. He was sort of maverick at school. His mother comes from the Gansky family, a Ukrainian branch of the Polish Hańsky nobility known by the illustrious Eveline Hańska, the wife of the French writer Honoré de Balzac. His father was a Sunni Volga Tatar educated in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Iskan is a graduate interpreter and economist. Before practicing as a business consultant, he was employed at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Moscow and Bucharest. Iskan put together a small yet fine collection of pictures by Soviet anti-communist nonconformist artists. Never having studied art, unexpectedly took to painting oil on canvas in June 2015 aged 59. Iskan is a 100% self-taught artist. Artistic Statement I take sunlight and transform it into the colors of my paintings. The Sun’s energy passes into them. My artwork comes from nature. I’m inspired by the sky, the sea, the line of the horizon, by the dusks and dawns, by the curves of the mountains and of the female body. I generalize images, often reducing them to geometric shapes. I trust that the viewer recognizes them subconsciously, reading off their meanings and reconstructing the original picture in his imagination. My colors are pure and my shapes are clear. I use the best paints, only sometimes adding linseed oil; I don’t use solvents, White Spirit or other chemicals. My pictures come from nature – my only teacher. I paint like I breathe. I do it all MY way. I write my own ticket. INSPIRATION I draw inspiration primarily from beautiful views and from music. Beauty comes from seeing nature. I am inspired by the sky, the sea, the line of the horizon, by the dusks and dawns, by the curves of the mountains and of the female body. I generalize images, often reducing them to geometric shapes. I trust that the viewer recognizes them subconsciously, reading off their meanings and reconstructing the original picture in his imagination. I adore Old Masters. I develop my ideas from classics of abstraction: Poliakoff, Nicolas de Stael, Rothko. Nature keeps my colors pure and my shapes clear. My pictures come from nature – my only teacher.