Anatole Krasnyansky

Anatole Krasnyansky, now residing in California, was already a prominent architect and watercolorist when he left the U.S.S.R. for the United States in 1975, where he found fertile ground for his aesthetic growth. His traditional cityscapes, much admired in Europe, have grown richer, freer and more expressive. In recent years, he has evolved a second, wholly new style with which to render the experiences and ideas of his new life in the United States. With a Master’s Degree in Architecture and Fine Art, he is well-versed in every aspect of the structure and design of the buildings he depicts. Since his arrival in the U.S., Anatole has found important uses for his knowledge of architecture, design and his creative imagination. Working as a scenic artist in television, motion pictures, and the theatre, he has designed sets calling for his specialized background.

Krasnyansky’s awareness of the interdependence of architecture, sculpture, painting and applied art along with his knowledge of these diverse disciplines have shaped his work and artistic philosophy. Through experimentation he has developed his own artistic method, one that has freed him from the constraints of traditional watercolor techniques. Krasnyansky’s innovative inclusion of paper texture into the creative process is a dynamic component of his art, resulting in an expansion of the medium’s potential. He is one of the first artists to elevate the watercolor medium to the expressive possibilities usually associated with oil painting. Bordering on the surreal, Krasnyansky’s figures never depart from the recognizable. Altogether new in form, they contain echoes of the artist’s Eastern heritage. Humane and lyrical, they combine the tangible with a timeless and universal spirituality. He has created art in two distinct styles: old world architecture and imaginative surrealism. He expresses himself in the “old” with historical reference and structure based on his classical art and architecture education and training. He expresses himself in the “new” with surreal, masked, animated, joyous and colorful harlequin characters.