Paintings and works on paper
From a series of 42 paintings.
"Memory, history, and persecution are the dominant theme of Eugene Yelchin's masterpiece, "Section Five”. In these stylized images Yelchin forces us to confront the anti-Semitism directed against Russian Jews, and the resulting internalization of a flawed sense of identity”. Laura Kruger, Curator, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum.
“By applying paint with his hands, Yelchin literally pushes his fingers into the skin of the canvas, molds textures from that skin, and tears the skin away as if to get at interior states of mind. These paintings are among the most tragic portraits of our time on the most personal, intimate, and ultimately irrational level of being a victim of official Soviet anti-Semitism.” Matthew Baigell, Emeritus Professor of Art History at Rutgers University.
“Section Five is the infamous “nationality line” in the Soviet passport. In Yelchin’s case, the nationality was “Jewish”, and in his self-portraits he disfigures the painterly surface with his fingers as if to handle the raw material of fear itself. At the end, Yelchin's s works offer a flickering figuration, a memory of terror, a hope of art.” Svetlana Boym, Curt Hugo Reisinger Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard University.
“Yelchin twists daubs of paint into tormented self-portraits. He picks at personal and national memory like a scab.” Chris Bergeron, MetroWest Daily News, Boston, MA.
“Yelchin’s self-portraits of searing emotional ferocity and astonishing technical bravura.” Simon Zalkind, curator, Denver, CO.
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection
Oil on canvas 10” X 12” Private collection
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection
Oil on canvas 10” X 12” Private collection
Oil on canvas 12” X 12” Private collection
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection
“All Yelchin's artistic projects are haunted by memories of the museums. In his childhood, the museum was an alternative universe of other stories, figurations and disfigurations. The minimal palette of colors in his work appears like an afterimage from visiting the semi-dark rooms in the St. Petersburg’s Hermitage filled with the works of the Italian and Spanish masters of chiaroscuro which allowed one to dream and reinvent oneself.” Svetlana Boym, Curt Hugo Reisinger Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard University.
“Yelchin's paintings amplify, with hallucinatory vigor and vertiginous physicality, the dimensions of delirium, catastrophe, barbarism and humanity that can be "pulled" from the old masters by the right artist. He can enter the grand and heroic masterwork and pulverize it, unlocking valves of sensation and emotion at all different levels. He's an artist who's expressive in the extreme, simultaneously visceral, painterly, abstract and tragic. His is an ardent, overflowing art whose urgency and extravagance doesn't overwhelm his vulnerability, but rather, exposes it. Yelchin’s paintings transported me in the way that one hopes to be transported by great art - art that feels necessary”. Simon Zalkind, Director of Exhibitions Mizel Center for Arts and Culture, Denver, CO
Oil on canvas, 40” X 60” Private collection
Oil on canvas, 60” X 72” Private collection
Oil on canvas, 60” X 72” Private collection
Oil on canvas, 60” X 72” Private collection
Oil on canvas, 72” X 60” Private collection
oil on canvas, 72” X 60” Private collection
Oil on canvas, 60” X 72” Private collection
Oil on canvas, 40” X 60” Private collection
Oil on canvas, 1999-2001 Private collection
Oil on canvas, 20” X 26” Private collection
Oil on canvas 19” X 24” Private collection
Oil on Canvas, three panels overall size 60” X 60” Private collection
Oil on canvas 50” X 13” Oil on canvas
From a series of 40 drawings
“Yelchin was educated in the Leningrad Academy of Theater Arts that continued in the line of the modernist theatrical experimentation and St. Petersburg commedia dell' arte that was interrupted in the 1920s. Modernist versions of commedia dell' arte were never about unmasking, but rather about playful doublefacedness, liberating potentials of theatrical illusion. The mask can both conceal the face and reveal the inner self, playing a game of hide-and-seek and speaking honestly through humor and indirection.” Svetlana Boym, Curt Hugo Reisinger Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard University.
Tuscan Red pencil, white chalk, and wash on paper
24” X 30” Private collection.
Tuscan Red pencil, white chalk, and wash on paper
24” X 30” Private collection.
Tuscan Red pencil, white chalk, and wash on paper
24” X 30” Private collection.
Tuscan Red pencil, white chalk, and wash on paper
24” X 30” Private collection.
Tuscan Red pencil, white chalk, and wash on paper
24” X 30” Private collection.
Tuscan Red pencil, white chalk, and wash on paper
24” X 30” Private collection.
Tuscan Red pencil, white chalk, and wash on paper
24” X 30” Private collection.
Tuscan Red pencil, white chalk, and wash on paper
24” X 30” Private collection.
Tuscan Red pencil, white chalk, and wash on paper
24” X 30” Private collection.
Tuscan Red pencil, white chalk, and wash on paper
24” X 30” Private collection.
Tuscan Red pencil, white chalk, and wash on paper
24” X 30” Private collection.
Tuscan Red pencil, white chalk, and wash on paper
24” X 30” Private collection.
Tuscan Red pencil, white chalk, and wash on paper
24” X 30” Private collection.
From a series of 28 paintings and drawings
Oil on canvas 48” X 54” Private collection
Oil on canvas 48” X 60” Private collection.
Oil on canvas 36” X 48” Private collection.
Oil on canvas 60” X 48” American Jewish Museum, Pittsburg
Oil on canvas 60” X 48” Private collection.
Oil on canvas 72” X 36” Private collection.
Oil on canvas 48” X 48” Private collection.
Oil on canvas 48” X 48” Private collection.
Oil on canvas 48” X 24” Private collection.
Oil on canvas 48” X 48” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper with white chalk 8.5” X 11 Collection of the artist.
Erased graphite on torn paper with white chalk 11” X 10.5 Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper with white chalk 12” X 8.5 Collection of the artist.
Erased graphite on torn paper with white chalk 14” X 10 Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper with white chalk 9.5” X 11 Collection of the artist.
Erased graphite on torn paper with white chalk 15” X 10.5 Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper with white chalk 13” X 9.5 Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper with white chalk 3.5” X 8 Collection of the artist.
Erased graphite on torn paper with white chalk 3 X 7.5 Collection of the artist.
Erased graphite on torn paper with white chalk 15” X 12 Private collection.
“For Yelchin, his richly textured surfaces--the pigments are often applied by hand--are not surrogates for reaching out to other persons or to "make art" but rather a way literally to feel his way into a subject or a particular passage in a painting and therefore into his own feelings. The movement of his brush or fingers, the application of paint, the thickening and thinning of forms, the superimpositions of one color on another are all part of a journey of self-revelation that lies beyond verbalization.” Matthew Baigell, Emeritus Professor of Art History at Rutgers University.
Oil on canvas 12” X 12” Private collection.
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection.
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection.
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection.
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection.
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection.
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection.
Oil on canvas 9” X 12” Private collection.
“Figures in Yelchin's work are detached from reality and turned into putty of metaphor, while instilling a kind of nervous, but basically ambiguous, urgency. His work reminds us that whenever figures enter the picture, the interpretive stakes are raised." Joseph Woodard, Los Angeles Times
Oil on canvas, 36” X 36” Private collection
Oil on canvas, 20” X 48” Collection of the artist
Oil on canvas, 18” X 40” Private collection
Oil on canvas 18” X 40” Private collection
Oil on canvas 29” X 48” Private collection
Oil on canvas, 22” X 42” Private collection
Oil on canvas 12” X 41” Collection of the artist
Oil on canvas, 12” X 41” private collection
Oil on canvas 18” X 18” Private collection
Oil on canvas, 20” X 38” Private collection
“Subtle, moody palettes dominated by ocher, umber and cream tones; the compositions comprise surrealistic abstractions based on the human figure; and all exude an inexplicable edginess that's both disturbing and compelling. The Yelchins appear to be a cross between the work of Francis Bacon and that of Chaim Soutine. Similar to Bacon's, Yelchin's figures appear to be melting before our eyes, and in line with Soutine, his brushwork is aggressive, featuring slashes of color used to sketch out the subjects.” Michael Paglia, Denver Westworld
Oil on canvas 17” X 21” Private collection.
Oil on canvas 60” X 72” Collection of the artist.
Oil on canvas 24” X 34” Private collection.
Oil on canvas 24” diameter. Private collection.
Oil on canvas 17” X 21” Collection of the artist.
Oil on canvas 15” X 17” Private collection.
Oil on canvas 15” X 21” Private collection.
Oil on canvas 12” X 20” Collection of the artist.
Oil on canvas 8” X 9” Collection of the artist.
Oil on canvas 18” X 18” Collection of the artist.
Oil on canvas 19” X 10” Collection of the artist.
Oil on canvas 12” X 6” Collection of the artist.
From a series of 16 drawings in erased graphite on torn paper
Erased graphite on paper 4.5” X 4.5” Private collection
Erased graphite on torn paper. 9” X 9” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper. 5” X 10” Collection of the artist.
Erased graphite on torn paper. 7” X 11” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper. 7” X 10” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper. 9” X 9” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper. 6” X 9” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper. 3” X 8.5” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper. 4” X 3” Collection of the artist.
“Everything is what you can't see. The mystery is the thing. Clues to how Yelchin's experiences have shaped him must be gleaned carefully - and always with the caveat that "truths" you might gain are only backed by your overactive imagination; here, it's all you have. Yelchin likes to remain shrouded.” Rebecca Schoenkopf, OC Weekly.
Erased graphite on torn paper 5” X 5” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper 4” X 9” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper 3.5” X 5.5” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper 5” X 9” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper 3” X 7.5” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper 4” X 10” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper 4” X 9” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper 2.5” X 10.5” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper 2.5” X 10.5” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper 3.5” X 11.5” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper 5” X 11” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper 3” X 7.5” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper 2.5” X 9.5” Private collection.
Erased graphite on torn paper 4” X 11.5” Private collection.
From a series of 25 paintings.
Oil, sand, gold leaf on canvas. 60” X 48” Private collection.
Oil, sand, gold leaf on canvas. 48” X 48” Private collection.
Oil, sand, gold leaf on canvas. 36” X 36” Private collection.
Oil, sand, gold leaf on canvas. 36” X 48” Private collection.
Oil, sand, gold leaf on canvas. 54” X 54” Private collection.
Oil, sand, gold leaf on canvas. 54” X 54” Private collection.
Oil, sand, gold leaf on canvas. 36” X 48” Private collection.
Oil, sand, gold leaf on canvas. 54” X 54” Private collection.
Oil, sand, gold leaf on canvas. 54” X 54” Private collection.
Oil, sand, gold leaf on canvas. 54” X 54” Private collection.
Oil, sand, gold leaf on canvas. 48” X 36” Private collection.
From a series of 12 paintings
Acrylic on canvas 36” X 48” Private collection
Acrylic on canvas 36” X 48” Private collection
Acrylic on canvas 36” X 48” Private collection
Acrylic on canvas 36” X 48” Private collection
