Sergey Vladimirovich Bakin is a well-known contemporary artist, working with oil and pastel. The master's paintings are in museums and private collections. He is an eminent arts professional of Russia, a corresponding member of the International Academy of Contemporary Arts, a member of Russian Artists Association, Artists Trade Union of Russia, a pastel society in France, and since 2020 a member of National Pastel Society of Russia and Red Rock Pastel Society of Nevada (USA).
The artist's creative style was formed under the influence of the twists of fate and gained experience. Sergey is recognized as a wonderful graphic artist, a master of line, spot and tonal painting, and a modern follower of the sensual impressionist style in painting.
Sergey was born in 1957 in St Petersburg (former Leningrad). In childhood he attended the fine arts club at the Youth Center of Vasilyevsky District in Leningrad, and a few years later he went to the secondary art school named after Johansson at the Academy of Arts.
After finishing secondary school, Sergey, however, did not feel strong enough to enter the Academy of Arts and decided to continue his education as a fashion designer at Stieglitz Academy. One of the reasons for entering this university was the advice of his friend’s father, an artist, who recommended Sergey to broaden his horizons by studying decorative and applied arts. And indeed, studying there allowed him to add new views on art to the basics of academic education received at art school. At first Sergey found the lessons at Stieglitz Academy boring and monotonous. He did not stop drawing in his own manner, which was not always welcomed by his teachers. As V.Tikhomirov, a classmate of Sergey, recalls, “He greatly irritated the most incompetent teachers with the unusual nature of his talent and got satisfactory marks for drawings, perhaps the only living and spiritually driven ones in class." Everything changed in his 4th year of study, when circumstances made Sergey see himself in a different light, and a low-performing student turned into an honors student. Sergey graduated Stieglitz Academy in 1982 with honors diploma.
After working at the dressmaker’s for six months, Sergey joined Leningrad Fashion House, the leading clothing design and promotion company in the USSR at that time. That’s where Sergey began to learn styling, with much more enthusiasm than in Academy, and his career as a fashion designer was very successful. Sergey's collections of outdoor clothes and suits for women were put into production. He also took part in Russian and international exhibitions and fairs. Sergey Bakin devoted 7 years of his life to fashion design, and working with women's images let him deep dive into their essence, which was further developed in his paintings and sketches. In 1990 Sergey left Leningrad Fashion House and struck out on his own as an artist.
So far, Sergey has taken part in more than 300 group art exhibitions, including autumn and spring exhibitions of Russian Artists Association (1996-2013). His exhibition activities also include collaboration with "Mitki" (1988-1991) — Soviet and Russian group of artists from St. Petersburg, which united about 20 people. In the 80-90s "Mitki" became one of the main components of Leningrad underground art of the second half of the XX century. At “Mitki” exhibitions Sergey's paintings were distinguished by greater labor intensity (compared to other artists’ work) and the lack of self-irony – his art was always serious and poignant.
The artist has organized solo exhibitions since 1987. Sergey Bakin is the winner of the exhibitions ‘Art du Pastel en France’ in 2003 and 2012, the exhibitions of National Pastel Society of Russia, the contest named after K.Korovin in St. Petersburg in 2017. He is also a multiple winner of the international competition ‘Art Excellence Awards’. In February 2021 Sergey was awarded the gold medal of the Artists Trade Union of Russia.
According to Sergey, it is impossible to single out specific painting styles and trends, which had a significant impact on his work. The artist's interests have changed over time, his creativity does not stand still, and the works of many contemporary artists, both Russian and foreign, arouse his great interest. At the same time, in Sergey’s paintings, according to art experts, one can guess the influence of the old Dutch, Venetians, and French of the XIX century. Sergey is within an inch of the brushwork of the Spanish school and the graphics of the Germans. The ephemerality of his landscapes and silhouettes pays tribute to the impressionist and expressionist movements in painting. The artist interprets impressionism in his own original way, supplemented by nuances of color and previously unseen psychologism.
Sergey Bakin is known mainly as an artist of cityscapes and landscapes, as well as female images, including ballet behind the scenes. He is considered to trumpet his hometown virtues. All of his work, from quick sketches made while walking around St. Petersburg to full-fledged paintings, is imbued with love and admiring the city, whether it is water surface, slender rows of houses, or courtyards. A special mood is created by the pictures of the city from a bird's-eye view, the perspective of streets and avenues, the features of old buildings architecture, studied and sketched by the artist in the open air from the roofs or towers of the city, mainly in Fontanka and Pushkin Square. All the cityscapes are recognizable, they accurately portray embankments, streets and buildings. In Sergey's works, the city always appears in a light Petersburg haze. You can see St. Petersburg even in Sergey’s paintings of other cities.
Here is what Izabella Belyat, art expert and senior research fellow at the State Hermitage Museum, writes about Sergey's landscapes:
“Sergey Bakin is one of the cohort of plein-air slaves seduced by creation, but he steered clear of their common feature - passive admiring. For him, vision is also a research tool. His principle of work performance fits into the concept of ‘non-finite’: he can repeat the same motives over and over again, capturing nuances of lighting, density of air, movement and shades of water, making transformation (in other words, time) an artistic phenomenon. This principle is not new, but it is constantly enriched by the particularity of the vision, the temperament of the artist and the originality of the chosen motif. Bakin is distinguished by his special enthusiastic involvement in the life of nature, his responsive brush captures its pulsations and scatters strokes of different shapes, thicknesses and directions on the canvas, making the surface live, move and flow. He likes wide, horizontal, open panoramas, sometimes perspectives, which go into the distance, as if beyond the painting. The space flows freely, without encountering any obstacles in the form of houses or trees – they are absorbed and dissolved by the atmosphere, perceived as condensed light masses. Architectural ensembles are barely discernible in the dense overcast haze. They are only a way to enrich the textured and colorful structure of the picture, which is its main content. In the eternal philosophical dilemma of ‘nature versus nurture’, Bakin clearly chooses the first, although he mainly paints cityscapes. For him, nature is an all-embracing universe.”
Female images take a special place in Sergey Bakin’s art. It is in drawing fair ladies that Sergey mainly uses pastel. In his ‘women series’ you can see the handwriting of a fashion designer - clear, expressive, concise lines, delicate color combinations, beautiful forms. The artist composed a special female image in his series ‘Ballet’, created in the backstage of the Mariinsky Theatre. These airy ballerina images, vivid on stage as well as in the rehearsal, formed a whole system of attitude to the beauty of the human body, the sinuosity of the lines, and the uniqueness of the plastique. And, oddly enough, while drawing women Sergey does not cease to be a landscape artist – you could hardly see personality in his characters, they are more like living and moving matter, immersed in the atmosphere, perceived as its concentrated bits.
Sergey Bakin has started and works now as an oil painter. He also enjoys using dry techniques. According to Sergey, he first tried soft pastels while making sketches in fashion design, and liked it a lot. Since then, the artist has used pastels not only for quick sketches and full-fledged paintings, but also in combination with oil. Mixed technique can create an unusual effect of immediate vision and momentary impression.