2021, personal exhibition "duende", Cube Moscow, Moscow
"Duende" represents the national creative essence of Spain, which profoundly influenced the works of Lorca and Picasso. It embodies passion and creation, a premonition of death and the breaking of familiar forms to give rise to new ones. Unlike the Greek muses that inspire harmony, or the Dionysian spirit, "duende" is a chthonic force that, in the rhythm of flamenco, ensnares the essence of death, much like a bullfight. In the words of Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, "duende is power, not labor; battle, not thought."
Nikolay Cherednichenko expresses the phenomenon of "duende" through nervous pulsations and the continuous tension of creation. His rejection of the spatial coordinate system in his canvases transmutes the plastic language of the "duende" series into a metaphysical realm. His non-objective approach draws the viewer towards the Universal. The symbol and expression of "duende" in Nikolai Cherednichenko's paintings become rhizomes, organic entities without a center, neither unified nor multiple, exhibiting an absent structure that precludes the possibility of a singular code. To quote Lorca once again, "There is only one thing duende is not capable of, and this should be emphasized – repetition." Hence, despite common elements in the "duende" series paintings, they do not conform to a unified code, neither in their spatial arrangement nor in their interpretive possibilities.
The pulsating intensity of colors and fragmented shapes disallows the eye from settling. The background with superimposed lines or fractured elements reveals another layer beneath, bestowing the illusion of spatial dimension upon the two-dimensional canvas, reminiscent of Victor Vasarely's op-art. A centrifugal movement disrupts the rigid rectangular boundaries of the canvas, introducing a fourth, temporal dimension that showcases the continuous formation and unfolding of the painting in the space surrounding it and within the viewer's perception.
Initially perceived as eight rectangular abstract canvases, the "duende" series transcends the confines of non-objective art, becoming an operation that obliterates the dichotomy between form and content. "Duende" is an energy, a process, the formation of color substance, but never a definitive form or a replicable principle.