In the Realm of Venice Painting

Junus Karimow is an artist who has produced a multifaceted body of work based on a brilliant nature study. The source of these qualities is a solid training at the Surikov Moscow State Academic Institute of Art, with the study of the human form as its central theme. Karimov's specialities are figurative, but also nude painting and expressive portraits. His range extends from classical realism to modern and abstract. The artist’s nude drawings calls to mind the figurative works in Art Deco and of Tamara de Lempicka. Karimow is a master of the use of graphite sticks and consequently, of the dynamic modulation of the body. Rubinesque curves and taunt muscles result in a manifestation full of energy and erotic: the Power woman. Karimow’s portrait series are reminiscent of the 1920’s, of the „New Functionalism” or the „magical realism”, as Franz Roh called it. Karimow uses oil, acryl, and paster it to masterfully depict diverse surface structures and materials: hair and skin, shiny and dull fabrics, wool and silk. In his collection “Venice Impressions”, the artist’s whole character bursts forth in rich, at sometimes almost orientally graceful magnificence. When he himself describes these works, we uncover a cornucopia of styles: he wants to include the lightness of Impressionism as well as the heavy perfume of the decorative Symbolism, as did Gustave Moreau, who was also an enthusiastic painter of nudes. Karimov was born in 1952 in Jangiul in Uzbekistan and attended the art academy in Tashkent. From 1974 to 1976 he studied at the St. Petersburg State Academy Institute of Painting, then from 1978 to 1984 at the Surikov Art Academy in Moscow. As the artist reveals, the Surikov State Art Academy in Moscow taught him to bring academic painting to perfection. His feelings and inspirations, on the other hand, led him to find new ways of expression that took him far into the realms of surrealism and abstract art. „Everything we see and feel construct inseparable harmony“, reveals the artist. As Karimow further explains, realistic imagery does not represent reality. Rather, art goes through the inner state that is why feeling is key in Karimow’s work. The artist employs light and shadows as the means creating shapes and spaces, color – as the music, transmitting the energy. This biography is based on Karimow's art review by Hermann F. Schweitzer, art historian.