Before you are fragments of works, mere glimpses into the vast painterly world of Leonid Mezheritski (1930-2007).
The artist received particular recognition from his contemporaries as a subtle and insightful portraitist. His portraits are valued for their rare psychological expressiveness and serve as important testimonies of the era and his skills.
Mezheritski's landscapes are filled with the atmosphere of plein air - light, air, and an attentiveness to beauty in its natural manifestation. Blossoming apricot and cherry orchards, quiet rural corners and streets of his native Odesa, the glow of winter days, the poetry of the sea and shores of Bolshoi Fontan nearby the city, views of Berlin and Tuscany, and the biblical power of Galilee - all are conveyed with impressive mastery and an astonishingly manifold palette.
Still lifes also hold a significant place in the painter's work. Here are the scent of lilac, the muted glow of fruit, and a carefully found harmony of objects. These compositions are not merely images, but small poetic scenes, alive with sensuous, rich colour.
The paintings by L. Mezheritski have always attracted the interest of experts, connoisseurs and collectors. They are featured in museum exhibitions and have been recognised through participation in shows both during his lifetime and in the present, thus revealing a new appreciation to the attentive and perceptive viewer.
This page presents an overview version of the artist's website art-leon.info. Its full version includes, among other things: high-quality reproductions, rare archival materials, and reviews by art critics. It offers the opportunity to explore the artist's oeuvre in its development and the pages of his life. Art lovers, the art-leon.info website, which is on the level of a catalogue raisonné, is already available in its desktop version!
Randomly chosen quote from the text sections of the site:
"And now, about my dear Lyonya* Mezheritski, Gena* Malyshev and Osik* Ostrovski [* the short form of the name – Note of the Editor]. We studied together on the same course, spent almost 16 hours a day together. After the classes we grabbed our painter's cases and went outside the city to paint sunsets; in the evening we returned to the school for evening painting. We did not have weekends; we worked like fanatics. Lyonya Mezheritski was a God’s gift to man as a painter. He made quiet, sincere works akin to Schubert’s music. I remember his portrait of his wife with child, a real masterpiece."
Lev Mezhberg. "Few Grateful Words about Odessa Artists". New York, 1985.
Published: Internet version of K.K. Kuzminsky’s and G.L. Kovalev’s "The Modern Russian Poetry Anthology "By a Blue Lagoon" in Five Volumes"