Finger of Atlantis or Stone Civilization Painting

Surrealist artist and designer Vladimir Novozhilov was born on June 30, 1965 in the city of Engels (Pokrovsk), Saratov Region, on the left bank of the Volga. Engels before the Great Patriotic War was the capital of the Autonomous Republic of the Volga Germans. It is possible that the very place of birth predetermined the fate of Vladimir Novozhilov as an artist, and an unusual artist at that. At the junction of cultures, social and cultural life is activated, it is believed that outstanding personalities are often born there, they say, this is a very favorable breeding ground for geniuses. In Pokrovsk-Engels, in the Saratov Trans-Volga region, Russian, Ukrainian, German, Mordovian, Tatar, Kalmyk and Kazakh cultures collided. In Engels-Pokrovsk, all these national cultures constantly intersected both in business and in everyday life. Here East and West, Europe and Asia, antiquity (even hidden) and modernity, sedentary people and nomads were united here. By the way, here is perhaps the only region in the world where Orthodox (including Old Believers), Catholics, Lutherans, Protestants (Mennonites), Muslims and Buddhists lived side by side, while religious enmity has never existed. The love of freedom and worldview of the nomadic peoples was reflected in the Russians, Ukrainians and Germans who settled here. Space, will and knowledge about "other ways of life" stimulate and liberate the mind, awaken imagination, encourage creativity, to "process" other people's ideas in their own way, by virtue of their concepts. Here "new religions" began to emerge. The land of Pokrovsk has “accumulated” a huge creative potential, becoming the homeland of artists Andrey Mylnikov and Alexei Kravchenko, writers Lev Kassil and Yevgeny Shatko, composers Alfred Schnittke and Viktor Kovalev (ballet Girl and Death), poet Viktor Schnittke. Writers Alexey Tolstoy, Alexey Slapovsky were born in the Volga region ... The artist Vladimir Novozhilov is rightfully included in this honorable row, all of the above is fully reflected in his work: the Eastern and Western worldview, antiquity and modernity, undivided freedom and skill. The press calls Novozhilov "a stubborn destroyer of reality - a hooligan, a tramp, an artist." These epithets bear a kind, collective image of the artist, fully correspond to him and his position in life. Yes, he is a hooligan in art, but as a true artist and a decent person, he does not allow vulgarity and bad taste.