…I think that Alexander Kalugin’s graphics convey the hidden meaning of the film perhaps even more successfully then all of the other components of this screen version…
The writer B. Akunin
Pilgrimage to the eternal city
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…In our days as perhaps never before it has become possible to give specific names to various forms of art, among those, the figurative arts. This is perhaps due to the role art now plays in the mass media. By this I include the many artists who have fallen under the media’s ubiquitous influence. In order for today’s artists to maintain an identity it is important that they retain the self-confidence and that inner peace so demanded by their craft. I purposely use the term craft, for it is their particular craft which permits these artists to communicate to their viewers that uniqueness and sensitivity so vital for their artistic gifts. Undoubtedly it is the individuality of each artist, which, in the final analysis separates him from ordinary craftsmen. It is the quality of this deep conviction and uniqueness that we perceive in the works of Alexander Kalugin, an artist who possesses the one most important ability to combine into his works contradictory qualities that by their very nature often resist easy expression: calm and a highly personal form of subjectivity…