An Introduction to the Mosaics of Yury Yarin

Hello Steemit! Today I wanted to share with you three of my favorite mosaics by Yury Yarin. In fact, these examples impressed me so much that I instantly knew that I had to commission works from him for life. 

1. The Virgin Tenderness. 40 x 50 cm. 2005. What struck me immediately about this piece was that the materials used were completely traditional and harmonious. You can see extraordinary attention paid to the texture of one tessera next to the other: some are glossy and some matte, and when a section is in danger of becoming too uniform, a contrasting tessera is inserted that breaks apart the monotony. It could have the opposite texture, a slightly different hue, higher chroma, be cut differently or form groupings, or face a different direction so light will fall on different pieces at different angles. Even the frame was hand-cut and inlaid with a variety of stones to avoid uniformity. There is something to admire, and to learn from, in every square inch.

2. St. Catherine. 43 x 50 cm. 2003. In this example the color palette used is much more prismatic. You can see how much care has been taken to cut the tesserae so that there are no gaps between the mosaic and the frame. 

3. Christ Pantocrator. 180 x 110 cm. 2002. In this massive example notice that some of the squares in the background are so large that 10-20 tesserae from the above works could fit inside one of them! And yet the same avoidance of uniformity is still applied at this scale. Notice here how gaps are exaggerated between the tesserae in Christ's lower torso. This allows the mortar to play a textural role as important as the tesserae themsleves.

I've commissioned Yury to create work in the spirit of each of these examples. In response to the first mosaic he made a Virgin and Child using the same prototype, but in a very different style. The prismatic quality of the second mosaic was reflected in a St. George icon. The designs of these first two commissions were completely up to Yury: all I had requested were the subject matter, and that they also incorporated inlaid frames like he had made for his Virgin and Child. The third mosaic is going to get a new take, of which only the drawing has been completed so far.

Thanks for looking, I hope you enjoyed looking at these works by Yury Yarin! On his website you can see his attention to texture applied to abstract painting, clay and wood sculptures, and graphite drawings. 

Best regards,

Stephen Chow (@chowcollection)