Exhibit: Artour Toulinov
“My greatest satisfaction comes when an image is able to elicit an emotional response or memory for the viewer, because I have delved deep into myself in making it, and we have found our common humanity.” – Artour Toulinov
Artour Toulinov
an (online) exhibition at Bethany Arts Community
curated by Spencer Throckmorton,
owner, Throckmorton Fine Art Gallery NYC
Exhibit on display: Jun 20th–Aug 31st, 2020
Gallery open:
Mon-Fri by appointment
Sat, Aug 15 (10am-3pm by appointment or drop-in if space permits)
Artwork may be purchased by contacting us at info@bethanyarts.org
Exhibit Event
Hang with Art:
A conversation with photographer Artour Toulinov, Alex AG, documentarian,
and Henry Welt, friend of BAC
August 20 @ 12:30pm
Via BAC Facebook page
facebook.com/bethanyartsorg
Artist Statement
Artour Toulinov
I began to photograph exclusively in the studio in 1999, using a black backdrop, which serves as a little theater. People from all walks of life became my models and interacted with objects I’d find everywhere, but mostly at the flea market, in antique and thrift stores or on the street, in order to tell a story. The studio gave me the freedom to portray my emotional struggles and those of others in a deeper way. Looking back over my work, I realize the most persistent themes are isolation and loneliness, nostalgia, mortality, the struggle with ambition, the irrelevance of labor to success, and the process of immigration. In the beginning, I explored the meaning of my memories, – what I left behind in Russia and what I brought with me. But then the work became more about what I found to be true for me here in America, and even more about the emotional lives of the people who were my models.
I always come to the studio with an idea and never work spontaneously. The props I use have relevance to an idea or to the model. I find that by working with the same props and the same models, I am able to discover even deeper meaning in my initial ideas. The models and I gain greater comfort working together over time, and they are then able to reveal the beauty of the human mind.
I was inspired to work in this particular way by the icons that fascinated me growing up in Russia, and by the classical literature of my motherland. In this age of digital photography, I suppose my tools would be considered classical as well. I shoot only black and white film with a Hasselblad camera designed in 1948, and print the images in the darkroom the old fashioned way.
My greatest satisfaction comes when an image is able to elicit an emotional response or memory for the viewer, because I have delved deep into myself in making it, and we have found our common humanity.
Artour Toulinov - Artist Bio
Artour Toulinov was born between two rivers in Tuapse, Russia, a seaport on the Black Sea. From a young age, he was sculpting, painting and drawing. He graduated from Moscow State University with a degree in law, which he practiced until he immigrated to the United States in 1991. Although he was unable to practice law here, he did continue his work as a fitness trainer, not realizing then that he was training his eye for the photographic work he would make in the future with people from all walks of life.
He first picked up a camera in 1993, but it wasn’t until 1999 that photography became his passion and his work took a serious bent. He began working exclusively in the studio, using a black backdrop to create a small theater for the objects and people that would portray the memories he left behind in Russia, and those that he brought with him. His work has always been heavily influenced by his fascination with Russian icons and by the classical literature of his motherland, and so it was natural for him to create stories with his images, stories that evolved over the years to express emotions and experiences common to all. He shoots only black and white film with a Hasselblad camera designed in 1948, and prints the images himself in a refined silver gelatin format.
Toulinov’s work is in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum, as well as in many private collections, and has been shown in galleries in New York City and Europe. After living and working in Manhattan for twenty-seven years, he now has made Philadelphia his home.
Martyr 2016
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Seeking 2017
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 1 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Veil 2012
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 4 of 15 Signed, edition and titled in pencil on verso $1,000
Vision 2018
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 2 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Off to War 2016
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 2 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Spirit 2020
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 1 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Trading Places 2019
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 2 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Man with Dove 2012
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 2 of 15 Signed, edition and titled in pencil on verso $1,000
Crown of Thorns 2017
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 3 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Dreaming 2017
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 1 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Ambition 2018
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 2 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Anvil 2016
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 1 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Book of Adam and Eve 2010
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 3 of 15 Signed, edition and titled in pencil on verso $1,000
Boxer and Death 2017
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 1 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Waiting for Justice 2016
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 1 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Carry On 2011
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 1 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Communication 2018
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 2 of 15 Signed, edition and titled in pencil on verso $1,000
Adam and Eve 2018
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Signed, edition and titled in pencil on verso $1,000
Crown 2012
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 4 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Crucified 2010
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 1 of 15 Signed, edition and titled in pencil on verso $1,000
David 2017
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 1 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Faith 2010
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 2 of 15 Signed, edition and titled in pencil on verso $1,000
Feather 2018
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 2 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Fisherman 2010
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 2 of 15 Signed, edition and titled in pencil on verso $1,000
Freedom 2018
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 3 of 15 Signed, edition and titled in pencil on verso $1,000
Icon 2018
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 3 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Imprisoned Self 2014
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 5 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Journey 2017
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 1 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Going Forward 2014
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 2 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Kindred Spirits 2017
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 1 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Marionette 2010
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 2 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Masquerade 2017
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 2 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
No Escaping 2017
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 3 of 15 $1,000
Pierrot Deciding 2016
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 2 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Pierrot Nostalgia 2016
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 2 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Second Amendment 2018
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 2 of 15 Signed, edition and titled in pencil on verso $1,000
Strong! 2019
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 1 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Thinking About Life 2010
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 1 of 2 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Thorns and Roses 2011
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 3 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
Time 2017
Gelatin Silver Print 11 x 14 in. Edition 1 of 15 Signed in pencil on verso $1,000
“Artour Toulinov’s photographs are lessons with objects and people. In stark and subtle ways, in Toulinov’s photographs models engage with things that are rife with connotation. His photographs are tonal allegories in which light and the absence of light shapes meaning. Simply, the artist stages dramas for his camera, dramas that become apologues – moral fables.”
GRAYS of ART with Arthur Toulinov (Short Documentary)
GRAYS of ART with Arthur Toulinov (Short Documentary), Produced by Single Shot Show with Alex AG, video, 28min, 2018
Hang with Art: a conversation with photographer Artour Toulinov, Alex AG, documentarian, and Henry Welt, friend of Bethany Arts Community
GRAYS of ART with Arthur Toulinov (Short Documentary), Produced by Single Shot Show with Alex AG, video, 28min, 2018