Spring fishing (“Russian hunting” series).

Materials: bronze, marble. 

Length: 270 mm.

Author: Nikita Kazarnovsky.

A new work by Nikita Kazarnovsky – “Spring Fishing” – continues the series of cabinet sculptures of the studio in the animalistic genre. In bronze plastic the artist captures the moment before the bear jumps for its prey.

Every spring and early summer (the time when the fish swim to spawn) bears that live near rivers rush to their fishing grounds. During these periods, the water is literally buzzing with fish, and the bear never misses this event. They catch it mostly in shallow water, dive for it, or even just try to get it out of the water. This vivid subject is reflected in the sculptural work. 

The expressiveness of forms and naturalness of the observed scene are sensitively reflected by the author: a large brown animal is already standing on its hind legs, reaches for the fish with its front ones and in a moment it jumps for it, splashing water with a noise. The artist accurately captures the plasticity of the moving figures and creates a closed composition, inscribed in a circle, which is emphasized by the movement of waves. Such composition creates the effect of the action culmination, as if it will happen at this very second.

There is expression and detail in this work that is characteristic of Nikita Kazarnovsky’s animalistic sculpture: the bear’s eager gaze, the heavy, ruffled, wet and shiny hide that is plastically well reflected in the bronze, and the water that is foaming with the abundance of fish so that one of them is tossed up. 

It is as if the artist is giving a sneak peek at a wonderful scene from the life of wildlife, hearing the roar of a hungry bear and smelling the smell of a spring river filled with a thousand fish.