This is a mobile version of the site art-leon.info! You are viewing fragments of paintings by Leonid Mezheritski (1930-2007). These and other landscapes, portraits and still lives by the master of impressionistic painting, saturated with a particular coloring, as well as their reviews by art experts, can be found on the site www.art-leon.info/Intro on your desctop computer.
The artist Leonid Mezheritski, a native Odessan, painted in the South Russian artistic tradition of plein-air landscape, not only his most favorite nooks of Odessa and Bolshoy Fontan, but also Russian snowy winters, small Ukrainian villages with blossoming apricot and sour cherry trees, nature in Italian Tuscany and Israel, and cityscapes in Germany.
The genre of still life also attracted the artist, already during his student days in the class of Dina Frumina at the Odessa State Art School. His love for this genre remained with him throughout his creative career. Contrary to the classical determination of such nature, here the artist’s paintings are characterized by vital coloristic compositions with fragrant bouquets of lilacs and alluring fruits as well as laconically expressive objects.
Critics and colleagues in the artistic profession mostly appreciated Leon, as they liked to call Mezheritski in the French manner thus emphasizing the origins of impressionistic coloring component of his work, for his great talent as a portraitist. Portraits of the artist's hand from his Odessa period, and in particular one of his self-portraits, are on display in various state art museums across Ukraine.
Paintings by the artist Leonid Mezheritski, who was a member of the creative elite Union of Artists of the USSR, repeatedly took part in various All-Union and republic art exhibitions, including very rare exhibitions of marine painters. Mezheritski’s paintings always succeeded in arousing a keen interest both among professionals, amateur viewers and collectors of art.
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"Mezheritski’s color experiments are of special interest, bringing the resonance of intense orange and yellow tones to the limit. Upon crossing this limit, the color composition becomes abstract. Such is “Still Life” with oranges and lemons on a white tablecloth and the especially memorable “Oranges” on colored drapes with a significant composition of bright orange fruit scattered on blue, green and light blue drapes and a brown plate. The audacious color solution builds mainly on the combination of additional colors – blue and orange, and leaves a great impression.
Lena Belenkaya, art historian. 2009