Brad Cooper Gallery

During the first decade of the twentieth century, distinct groups of artists used drawing to search for an absolute correspondence between freshness of perception and spontaneity of execution. This experimentation in drawing generated a vast diversity of art and established a base for the vitality of the Modern Art movement.

In Paris, the most influential center for artistic development, artists gathered to share their discoveries, intellectual beliefs and to enjoy the freedom of the Bohemian life. Like many artists, Russian-born Nicolas Morosoff (1899-1994) and Vera Maslennikova Morosoff (1899-1991) were also attracted to the impulse of these inventive art approaches.

In Moscow, their affinity with Modern Art was heightened by being exposed to the collections of Russian industrialists, Schukin and Morosov. Morosoff, wanting to flee the failed hopes of the Revolution, devised a way out of Russia with a student visa to study in Italy. Nicolas left with Vera. They never returned.

Italy 1925

Nicolas and Vera, both young aspiring artists, were finally free of the Bolshevik oppression. They were captivated by the history of art in Italy, particularly the work from the Byzantine period. They managed to study in Rome, Florence, Venice and Ravenna.

Morosoff=s first figure studies reflect the disciplined observation and technical facility that he realized from his education at the Moscow Academy of Art, VCHTEMAS (1921-22). His instructor, Wassily Kandinsky, taught him to preserve the traits of the masters and to draw from nature while maintaining an experimental attitude toward the materials and technique.

Nude 1925, a sensitive analysis of line and shadow led him to the succeeding drawings where color components make up a radiating surface, absorbing and reflecting light. Applying color in separate strokes created an active and dynamic surface, forcing the eye to fuse the colors together.

Morosoff maintained that, "Each creative effort should imbibe itself with an observation of nature, for nature is light, color, and shape . . . it is full of infinite riches, and yet one must possess knowledge of using it in order to master an exact measure of a sense of transition . . ."

Paris 1927

The Morosoff's ultimate destination, from the days of Moscow, was Paris. They arrived in the late twenties, and ended up settling in Monteparnasse where they developed ties with other artists of similar circumstance. Monteparnasse is located on the left bank of the Seine and was the Latin Quarter of Paris.

The Cafes, such as LaRotonde and LeDome became the places to meet and exchange with creative individuals of diverse experience. This was their dream fulfilled and became the fertile ground for their life's inspiration. In Cafe 1937, Morosoff, with compassion, portrays the Parisian cafe as human drama. He interprets a fragmented experience of seeing by concentrating on the part of the total event that was meaningful to him. He illuminates man as a social being with zestful execution using black charcoal.

Using bold brushed color in Companions 1936, Morosoff is sympathetic to the atmosphere of the room interior, as the figures fill the entire space of the paper to set the mood. This idea of the room interior that encloses the individual in their environment was typical of the work of the painters of Montparnasse.

Bordeaux 1932

Nicolas Morosoff and his wife spent several summers in the countryside of Bordeaux. Landscape's I, II, III and IV 1932, reveal his interest in the textured vivacity of the outdoors and the portrayal of depth of space on the pictorial plane.

The scale of form and the richness of movement of leaves in nature spread across the paper. This means of placement leads the eye across the surface creating a relationship between the forms within the drawing. These drawings signal his search to reveal a solid structural relationship of composition, and to unify his visual experience of landscape.

Later, in a 1950 lecture in Paris, he spoke about how an artist should organize a drawing: "Certainly to organize his pictures structure; that is the organization of a pictorial surface, an artist should have a gift of composition and know how to use his creative powers."

With a visit to Spain on the invitation of a friend, the Morosoffs central focus was on the town of Barcelona and the Toledo studio of the painter El Greco. This exposed the Morosoffs to yet another cultural energy.

The influence of El Greco's mannerist approach is observed in the elongation of figures in Flamenco 1950, and the animated tension created in Mystery 1950. This influence can be seen in most of his figurative work hereafter.

The romantic landscape depicted in Castle 1950 evokes a heroic mood and reflects an emotional identification between the artist and the landscape. Morosoff viewed drawing as "a means to reveal and unveil what is essential: the inner sense of nature hidden from profane eyes and without which a living artwork cannot probably exist."

The Morosoffs arrived in America through the port of Chicago on March 9, 1951. From Europe, they brought with them only a trunk of personal belongings and two crates of paintings. He called himself and his wife "perpetual immigrants." Shortly thereafter, they moved to the upper-west-side of Manhattan where they maintained a studio/residence until 1972.

Despite the frantic activity surrounding the Abstract Expressionist movement in New York, Morosoff remained centered on his original aesthetic purpose: to penetrate the "secret of nature's inner sense." His artistic language was formed by the tradition of the Russian Icon as its basis and a layering of cross cultural experiences influencing his creative vision.

His devotional ideal created an indifference to the influences of fashionable American art of the time. Morosoff's personal and tender regard in Mother and Child 1960 upholds the many traits of influence from the Byzantine period which remained with him throughout his life=s work. The figures are presented in a frontal view, their postures austere and ceremonial, like that of the Virgin seated with the Child, but portrayed as subjects of the artist's own time and culture. He believed that Modern art comprised many of the characteristics of the Byzantine style and that the artists from this early period created the paradigm for the Modern artist.

Nicolas Morosoff moved to Florida at the age of 72, a seasoned painter with years of rich experience. He felt his work was just beginning. Interior Still Life and Serenade, 1980 reflect Morosoff's undergoing constant elaboration of his pictorial science. He concentrated his vision on the conveyance of space and structure along with a shining clarity of color combinations. "Coloring is the soul of painting. Harmony of colors and the rhythm of lines are its base. The artist uses color to express the most delicate states of emotion; his innermost secret feelings . . ." wrote Morosoff.

Portrait's I and II, 1980 demonstrate his assurance in conceiving the composition in its entirety with a minimal structure of form and value. These gouache studies and drawings were developed into final paintings, as were most of his drawings.

Nicolas Morosoff , with a simple dignity, searched for form and integrity in his work: "Artists aspire to create new means of expression, but in reality they are sinking in an analytic piece of wit (jeux d'espirit) and they forget that these means of self-expression are not an aim in themselves, their importance should never dominate . . . what counts is the development of sharp sensibility, an infinite love of life, whose perpetual evolution is made out of radiant freshness and eternal youth."

Vera Maslennikova died in St. Petersburg, Florida in March of 1991, and Nicolas Morosoff died in Ybor City, March of 1994.