Anatole Krasnyansky, 1930 –

 

Anatole Krasnyansky, now residing in California, was 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; and in recent years he has evolved a second, wholly new style with which to render the experience 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., the artist has found important uses for his knowledge of architecture, design and his creative imagination, and he has realized his tremendous potential and achieved virtuosity in several different artistic areas.  Working as a scenic artist in television, motion pictures and the theatre, he has designed sets calling for his specialized background.  Always a lover of the baroque, he incorporated the strength and fluid grace of that style into his figural compositions, capturing the sense of motion with which a building makes a line flow from one area to another.

Krasnyansky’s awareness of the interdependence of architecture, sculptures, painting and applied art, and his knowledge of these diverse disciplines have shaped his career and found expression in his art.  Through experimentation he has developed his own artistic method, one that has freed him from the constraints of traditional watercolor techniques.  Krannyansky’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. His art, altogether new in form, contain echoes of the artist’s Eastern Heritage, the cubist ideas of Picasso and Braque and the modernity and energy of American Culture, They are lyrical and yet possess a human presence and combine his faith in the human spirit with a rigorous artistic substance and foundation.

 

Major Exhibitions include:

Dalzell Hatfield Galleries "International Watercolor Masters"; Stanford University, Los Gatos Museum, UCLA, Park West Gallery, and solo exhibitions in New York, Boston, New Orleans, Atlantic City, San Francisco, Beverly Hills, San Diego and Tokyo.

 

Television and Motion Pictures:

1975-77:

Scenic Artist at ABC and CBS Television Studios: Credits include; General Hospital; Variety Specials for Frank Sinatra, John Denver, Bette Davis, George Burns, Olivia Newton-John; Academy Awards Shows 1976-1977 and others.

From 1977:

Set designer at Universal Studios. Credits include: Coal Miner’s Daughter; Beatles Forever; The Blues Brothers; The Bastard; Prisoner of Zenda; The Archer; Battlestar Galactica; Condominium; Airport ‘79; Gilligan’s Island and others...

From 1981:

Stage Art Director at Odyssey Theatre, West Los Angeles. Credits include: Productions of "Mandrake", Machiavelli I. Dimont-K, and Maurer & Ron Sossi Productions.