Boris Chetkov - Selected Portraits

"Portraits are often the most captivating subjects that an artist undertakes, providing as much insight (or more) into the artist as they do of the person being portrayed. Boris Chetkov's portraits are extraordinary in this respect. In creating images of these myriad personalities, real and imagined, Chetkov opens his heart and his mind without reservation or pretense.

When I first visited him in his rooftop studio, I was immediately struck by the astonishing range of his style, palette, and subject matter. I grouped the works into distinct categories such as landscapes, genre, horses, abstraction, and still life, but it was the portraits that truly seduced me. In my many years of studying art, I can recall but a small group of the most important artists who approached portraiture with such verve and primal intelligence.

Who were all of these people that Chetkov painted? Some were friends who sat for their portraits, others were impressions or memories of certain people, but most are pieces of the soul of the artist himself-extracted from within, virtually carved and sculpted with uncanny mastery and vibrant, exploding emotion."

- Kenneth A. Pushkin, Postwar Russian art researcher