In this new world of the United States he felt a fight for survival as he faced the cruel reality of commercialism. Here he had to face a new task of coping with a new cultural environment and interpreting a very different social world. This was a world so fluctuating and yet regulated, encouraging and rough, a country where coexist a marginal cultural search and the magnitude power of mass culture, where every minute art and business face each other in bewilderment and yet as in covenant. This experience was mentally painful --- compelling him to constantly measure his sophistication and strengths against his rivals. The European image was not working in the U.S. He found, that unlike his earlier dreams, there was not a great deal of demand for producing iconographic artworks in the United States. As Aleksandr Kharon said about the USA, "here spirit and obsessions are perpetually merging as the florid clouds of butterflies fluttering playfully just above a glistening furious ocean". Suddenly after the cultural nourishment of Italy, Kharon collided with accounting departments of commercial galleries in America.
"Still Life With Singing Bottles"~1992, canvas, oil, 36"x24"~ LucOil Foundation Museum, Vienna, Austria
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His art in its pure religious form was too original and rather exotic for his new audience. He found himself in torture, brooding about forms and intrinsic meaning of his art. After much painful experience of exalted contemplation during long days and nights he started a new period of his artistic life. His art became not merely the combination of different cultures, but the unique expression of an alloy between divine tradition of the ancient Byzantium iconwrights, meticulous European school and robust American freedom.
Always, his now innate spiritualism imbued his work with a special "spiritual light" whether in portraiture, landscape, or iconography. He has said when he looks at an object or person he intends rendering, that as he closes his eyes after observing, he seeks to see with his "inner light" the Divine in every subject. It is this "spiritual light" in his work that captures the viewer and draws him in and captivates his soul. It is this feature that makes both his secular and his spiritual art fascinating and illuminating to all that experience it. His art is essentially iconographical in nature. Employing ancient Russian tradition and Byzantine canon 'Erminia', Kharon composed wonderful iconostasis and lectern icons with the perfection he insists is obtained through constant prayer.
"Portrait of the Artist from Montmartre"~1968, canvas, oil, 24"x20"~ Musée d'Art Moderne Georges Pompidou, Paris, Beaubourg
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His icons, paintings, frescos, and sculptures are exhibited in many museums and private collections worldwide such as the:
- Museum of Modern Art in Paris, France (Musée d'Art Moderne Georges Pompidou, Paris, Beaubourg)
- Amsterdam
- LucOil Foundation Museum, Vienna, Austria
- Baltimore
- San Francisco
- collections of Pope John Paul the Second
- Museum de Catacombs in Albino
- and others.
Aleksandr explains that his art is attributed to his beloved family: beautiful wife, three sons (one of them continuing his father's art in Greek monasteries), and his little angel daughter. Divine love: that is where he imbibes his inspiration for timeless sacrificing work. Precisely following the discipline of the ascetic monks he painted austere icons with transparent colors, gentle lines; icons which carry tender and austere expressions with simple sincere emotions filled with divine light. Giant figures of saints and martyrs that Aleksandr depicted in the frescos that adorn the various places throughout the world stay overtly different from and still remind us of his painting outside of religious canons. Well aware of copious modern traditions, Kharon possesses perfect technique firmly trained in prominent European art schools from his early age that allowed him to achieve the pinnacle of mastery.
"Old
Man with a Boy"~1969, oil, canvas, 40"x36"~ Musée d'Art Moderne Georges Pompidou, Paris, Beaubourg
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Aleksandr Kharon is considered one of the most devoted and prominent religious painters of modern time, however his artistic talent extends into an amazing diversity of style, type and genre. It is no surprise that an intense spiritual life is the catalyst for his art because all things are susceptible to artful metamorphosis. Throughout his artistic life, in every portrait, scenario, landscape, and other masterpieces can be seen the original expression of his remarkable life, his cultural odyssey and spiritual ascent, his unique skills and solitary endeavor.
Article contributors: Oleg Popov, 1993, George Anagonst (former student), Alexander Choklin, 1991, Jean-Claude Lemoyne, and Garnet R. Chaney
