Recognize this image? If you are familiar with Waterville Valley, you are familiar with our local "ruins".
The Margret and H.A. Rey Center Art
Gallery opens an exciting new art exhibit on Saturday May 18, 2013. The exhibit entitled “Impressions of the North Country” by
visiting Russian Artist Boris Oskin is the product of a two-month visit by
Russian artist, architect and diplomatic attaché, Boris Oskin and his wife
Elena back in1992. Boris’ watercolors, sketches and personal letters and
correspondences will be on display in the gallery from Saturday May 18-
Saturday June 22, 2013. The collection left behind by Boris upon his return to
Russia is now part of the personal collection of local Watervillian, Chris
Larsen, who has generously offered to share its contents as well as his
personal stories and experiences with the Oskins. An opening reception will be held on Saturday May 25 from
6:30 -8:00 p.m. giving visitors the opportunity to see our landscape through
the eyes of a Russian artist and hear the stories of his unique relationship
with our own late Donald Jasinski, who was responsible for bringing Boris to
the United States. Come hear stories of Boris’ antics as well as how the trip
was only possible after he left the employ of the Communist Party. Rey Center
Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturdays 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Boris Oskin was born in Moscow in
1935, but evacuated with his family from the city during the German invasion.
At the age of fifteen he started work as a metal smith at the famous “Pravda”
newspaper plant in Moscow. In 1952 he graduated from school with a gold medal
for his artistic abilities. While his school directors urged him to pursue a
career in painting, his practical grandmother persuaded him to become an
architect. As an architect, Boris designed and supervised the construction of
many important buildings around the world including the Soviet Consulate in
Geteburg, Sweden and the Soviet Embassy in Guyana. Boris’ free time was spent
painting and sketching, completing a series of oils for the Gusevasholm Castle
in Kunkbacks, Sweden. Boris enjoyed working in oils, watercolors and sketches
in graphite, drawing his inspiration from the local scene, wherever in the
world his work and art took him.
Boris Oskin and Donald Jasinski met
in 1974 at an architectural convention. After exchanging the traditional
niceties of invitations to each other’s homes, Donald and Boris went their
separate ways. They kept in touch through letters for a short period of time
and Donald would send Boris and his wife cosmetics and toiletries that they
were not able to get in their country. At some point, Boris went to work for
the Foreign Affairs Ministry of the USSR and was no longer allowed to have
contact with his friend Donald, sadly telling him so in a letter. Seventeen
years later, in 1991, Boris reconnected with Donald after leaving the Foreign
Affairs Ministry and asked for a formal invitation from Donald to visit the
United States. The rest is history painted in the watercolors on display in “Impressions of the North Country”.
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