Artist with free mind

“The Way I Chose” is the name of the exposition. The display allows following the creative career of the artist, whose main inspiration is the Bible. The display is dedicated to the romantic Judaic theme — an art direction that may also be called “scenes of Jewish life”. In the early XX century this direction was given a mighty incentive by I. Pan and his students, among them the famous Mark Shagal.

Matvei’s father, Israil Basov, is considered the patriarch of the Belarusian avant-guard. His brushwork is connected with the Judaic artistic thought and spiritual life of the Jews, and Matvei Basov continues his father’s traditions.
Matvei Basov’s pictures are characterized by a small or medium size, playfulness and deliberate sketchness acuminated by colors and light. Matvei Basov created his own Judaic style in painting. Some call him an impressionist, some believe he is a modernist, but they all agree that these paintings are very secretive and yet simple.

Basov is a unique color matcher and has an amazing technique: he makes a light basis, covers it with thick paint layers, and then he scrapes some of the paint away to have an uneven texture that looks like bark. One paint is visible through another, and there is an illusion of movement on the painting.
He has taken up landscapes recently, and he is very good. Basov is a welcome guest in New York, where his next display will soon open in Fifth Avenue. Moscow and France are his next destinations. Matvei believes an artist should travel a lot to see different arts and be free in his or her choice. Another key is hard work. This is Basov as we know him — a free mind and hard worker.

His paintings are to be found in the largest galleries and private collections in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Israel, Spain and the U.S.

by Galiya Fatykhova