Oil on canvas, 1994 by Nikolai Skryl.
Watching the artists on Nevsky Prospect painting St Petersburg's beautiful cathedrals, scenery and canals can seem impressive and interesting for the casual tourist.But of course this does not sum up St Petersburg's painters and artistic life.
Quoting the so-called "Non-Manifesto" of artist duo Nikolai and Galina Skryl, there is also a different attitude towards painting and art in general: "Art is ahistoric -- it has neither past, nor present, nor future." The duo refuses to paint in a clear and descriptive way.
Now, having returned from touring the cities of Berlin and Munich, the Skryls' work can once again be seen by St Petersburg's public at an exhibition which will be held in their own private place, "just like in Soviet times when we weren't allowed to show our work in public," said Nikolai Skryl. He knows what he's talking about: the artist had lived illegally in former Leningrad for more than three years. Only by marrying his Leningrad-born wife Galina could he achieve legal residential status.
The main basis for the couple's pictures and themes is their self-styled philosophical theory on life called Superforce. This "Grand Unified Principle of Nature in Painting" has fascinated critics from Canada to Kazakhstan.
Influenced by scientific studies (Nikolai was a doctor in 1979), the artist discovered that "the world consists of uniform principles, describing the origin and self-development of the universe -- the Superforce."
In his opinion the Superforce is made up of the geometrical structures of space, and art is a medium in which to describe these multiform structures. This combination of science and arts explains why Nikolai got in touch with science author and celebrity Stephen W. Hawking, Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University.
Looking at Nikolai's "Fast train" (1994) you get some idea of what is meant by "describing multiformal structures." Here concrete movement forms abstract movement. Galina's "Cherie" (1993) shows a piece of ripped and repaired black canvas, symbolizing the female beginning of the world, disturbed by changes in our modern world.
And Nikolai's "Ankh" (1994), stands for male power, with symbolic references to Old Egypt.
The most striking aspect of the Skryls' work is that there's always something new and unusual. They turn what they call "everyday life" into the dimensions of "Superforce" leading us to new aspects of the visible, the concrete as abstract.
And you won't be able to resist the fascinating allure of "The apple's rising" (1994), even if it's not quite the real sunrise over the banks of the River Neva on a beautiful morning.
"Universal Mathematical Formula", 1993 by Nikolai Skryl.