Figures on the heart

Nearly 30 years passed after the Great Patriotic war when Mikhail Savitsky started the realization of his project. The canvases of the series expose the sinister image of fascism. Since 1974 till 1979 the artist had been working on the series “Figures on the heart” which consists of 16 canvases. This is a fervent story about the events the artist went through in Nazi captivity, about human courage, about the fact that Evil can’t destroy human urge towards freedom, life, good and justice…

These thematic pictures based on actual historical events brand the fascist technique of exterminating people practiced by means of classic completeness of form. Strict compositional symmetry, sullen, tragic colouring tension, clear-cut drawing – all these are used by the author to make his pictures live.

The series show us “industrial” methods of annihilation of people, butcher’s cruelty, inhuman life condition of prisoners, their desperate fight for life.

Every work can be considered as a separate one, which has a complete composition, figurative structure with the background of Renaissance traditions as well as chiselled  image, dramatic tension of colour based on sharp contrast rhythm, color and light. But the whole series of paintings corresponds one tragic play with it’s appropriate acts.

The series “Figures on the heart” takes a special place in the artist’s activity. It marks the acme of the artist’s mastership. Moreover, this series is one of the most tragic works in the world paintings.