PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

Alexander Rozhin
Andrea Granchi. Heir to the varied artistic traditions of Florence

#4 2019 (65)

An Academician and for many years a professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze (Academy of Fine Arts of Florence), Andrea Granchi inherited his profession from his ancestors. Natives of Tuscany, his father, grandfather and great-grandfather lived and worked in Florence, where they were among the few craftsmen skilled in woodcarving, as well as gilders and restorers of fine art, both classical and contemporary, frames and furniture.

 

Yulia Didenko
Adelaida Pologova, Sculptor par excellence. "... And Keep My Trace Intact"

#2 2017 (55)

From November 2016 to February 2017 the Tretyakov Gallery presented an exhibition of the exceptional sculptor Adelaida (Alla) Pologova (1923-2008), the Tretyakov's first solo show of the sculptor's works and the first museum exhibition since Pologova's death almost a decade ago. The exhibition "... And Keep My Trace Intact" presented 47 sculptures created throughout a career that lasted for half a century, from 1956 to 2006, of which 23 came from the Tretyakov Gallery's definitive collection of Pologova's work, and 24 from the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and private collections, including that of the sculptor's family.

Mikhail Lazarev
MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE

#3 2016 (52)

In his career as an official Soviet artist, Anatoly Moseichuk (1942-2013) was the creator of architectural landmarks with a prominent decorative element, from stations of the Moscow metro to the Ho Chi Minh Museum in Hanoi. Such was his creative activity in the real world, his engagement with the realities of life as it was then.

 

 

Yelena Noskova
Valery Maloletkov's Cup of Destiny

#1 2016 (50)

Valery Maloletkov, a famous master of contemporary applied arts, People's Artist of Russia and member of the Russian Academy of Arts, recently celebrated his 70th birthday. Maloletkov's work in ceramics, ranging from portraiture and genre scenes to works inspired by history and literature continues to expand the possibilities of the form. His artistic career started with a group of young ceramic artists at the Vorontsovo Experimental Design and Production Plant. Passionate about discovering new means of artistic expression, mastering different materials and techniques of decor, and widening the possible volume-spatial, plastic, constructive and colour possibilities of clay, he grew increasingly close to a number of talented Moscow artists, including Vadim Kosmachev, Vladimir Petrov, Lyudmila Soshinskaya, Tatyana Gan and Suren Malyan.

Olga Gerasimova
Nikolai Silis. The Palindrome Artist

#1 2015 (46)

THE SCULPTOR NIKOLAI SILIS WAS BORN IN 1928 IN MOSCOW, IN THE GRAUERMAN MATERNITY HOSPITAL ON THE ARBAT: THE SILIS FAMILY LIVED NEARBY, IN A COMMUNAL FLAT ON GOGOLEVSKY BOULEVARD. HIS FATHER, ANDREI SILIS, WAS SHOT IN DECEMBER 1941, ON TRUMPED-UP CHARGES, IN THE UKHTIZHEMLAG LABOUR CAMP. HIS MOTHER, YEKATERINA, MIRACULOUSLY SURVIVED THE BLOCKADE OF LENINGRAD, WHERE THE FAMILY HAD TO MOVE AFTER THE FATHER'S ARREST. YEKATERINA SUCCEEDED IN SENDING HER TWO SONS, THE OLDER RUFIM AND THE YOUNGER VADIM, AWAY TO RELATIVES LIVING NEAR THE TOWN OF KALININ.

Olga Polyanskaya
Tatiana Yablonskaya. 1949. The artist's "true heart"

#4 2014 (45)

THERE ARE 35 PAINTINGS BY THE RENOWNED UKRAINIAN ARTIST TATIANA YABLONSKAYA (1917-2005)1 AT THE TRETYAKOV GALLERY. THE ONE THAT HAS BEEN ON PERMANENT DISPLAY SINCE ITS ACQUISITION AND HAS RIGHTFULLY BECOME ONE OF THE GALLERY'S ICONIC IMAGES IS "GRAIN" (1949). THIS PAINTING HAS LONG AGO TRANSCENDED ITS ERA AND BECOME A FAVOURITE FOR SEVERAL GENERATIONS OF RUSSIAN ART-LOVERS. "GRAIN" WAS CREATED IN 1949, A YEAR THAT BEARS SYMBOLIC MEANING BOTH FOR YABLONSKAYA'S WORK AND THE HISTORY OF POST-WAR SOVIET ART AS A WHOLE.

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

Tatiana Kochemasova
Alexei Shmarinov and His "Exquisite Simplicity"

#2 2013 (39)

THE ART OF ALEXEI SHMARINOV IS MARKED BY THE SUBTLETY OF ITS ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTION, A PROFOUND KNOWLEDGE OF HISTORY AND APPRECIATION OF TRADITION, A DELICATE SENSE OF HERITAGE AND THE INTEGRITY OF ITS ARTISTIC ATTITUDE. THE ARTIST CELEBRATES HIS 80TH BIRTHDAY WITH A MAJOR EXHIBITION AT THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF ARTS. IT IS A SPACE FILLED WITH THE YEARS OF HIS CREATIVE STRUGGLE AND SPIRITUAL WANDERINGS, AND THE MULTITUDE OF PAINTINGS AND GRAPHICS FROM DIFFERENT PERIODS ARE LIKE LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS OF A GREAT TALENT PASSING THROUGH THE MOST SIGNIFICANT STAGES OF LIFE.

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

Viktor Kalashnikov
An Artist of Paradox

#3 2012 (36)

All of us were once taught that the world was propelled by contradictions, the unity and struggle of opposites, and other similar principles. Perhaps the most valuable among these ideas is the notion of paradox, which implies a discord between meanings so striking that the mind at first refuses to accept them. Ivan Leonidovich Lubennikov is a true artist of paradoxes. If viewers familiar with his very aestheticised and ironic easel paintings learn that he also created the fanciful steel structures inside or on the facades of certain buildings, they are bound to think that this fact runs counter to the laws of nature and society.

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

Alexander Rozhin
Dmitry Ikonnikov: Artistic Milieu

#2 2011 (31)

Dmitry Ikonnikov, through the breadth of his perception and his deeply personal feeling and understanding of the nature of art, as well as his professional experience and unarguable talent, has achieved a remarkable freedom of expression. He has created a unique figurative language, which is marked by the harmonic invariance of the form and content of his work.

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

Valery Turchin
Burganov’s Motifs: The Assault of Images Operating in Space. Dialogue with Chaos

#2 2010 (27)

According to Alexander Burganov, art is perhaps one of the few types of evidence that most accurately reflects the general confusion in our souls. Intellectual, sensual, experimental, traditional… There are many options available for understanding Burganov's art. His oeuvre should not be reviewed chronologically – chronology is irrelevant here. Nor should we concentrate on typology, because the composition of his art will appear to have more complexity than any possible classification can accommodate. Perhaps it is more appropriate to review separate works. To understand their meaning and form, and the techniques used to create them. Then we can proceed to conclusions…

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

Alexander Morozov
Nikolai Andronov Today

№4 2009 (25)

I have known Nikolai Andronov for as long as I have remembered myself as a professional art critic. When I was graduating from college, in December 1962, the famed show at the Manezh was taking place, with Andronov's “Rafters” one of those works that especially impressed us at the huge exhibition marking the 30th anniversary of the Moscow branch of the Artists' Union. It was not that you understood or liked everything in the picture, but it left an indelible stamp on the memory.

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

Alexander Rozhin
The Phenomenon of Iulian Rukavishnikov

#3 2009 (24)

Maximalism distinguishes a true artist from a craftsman. Iulian Rukavishnikov was a maximalist because he had both great personality and great talent, and the highest level of professional culture. He undoubtedly belongs to the host of brilliant 20th-century artists who set him on the path of innovation. Rukavishnikovʼs artistic legacy is as important as that of Henry Moore and Giacomo Manzù, Constantin Brâncusi and Alexander Archipenko.

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

Zoe Bray
Nelson White: A Life between the Tuscan and American Landscape

№1 2009 (22)

With the elegant courtesy of his native New England, Nelson White welcomes me to his studio space at the Florence Academy. Seascapes hang from the partitions. On the main easel, a portrait is a work in progress. But thereʼs little room to sit down and talk, so we withdraw to a table in the library. Around us, FA students browse through its rich collection of art books.

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

Alexander Rozhin
Work is the Universal Pleasure

#1 2009 (22)

The art of one of the most remarkable and brilliant Russian sculptors Anatoly Andreevich Bichukov is an example of spiritual self-sacrifice, selfless devotion to art, and the epitome of the good and the beautiful. For nearly 50 years he has been putting his talent and sense of purpose in the high service of art. A graduate of the Moscow State Art Institute, now the Surikov Art Institute (MGAKhI), where he became a dean several years ago, Bichukov, as early as his college days, won reputation as a singular personality passionately dedicated to art.

PORTRAIT OF ARTIST

Alexander Rozhin
Tair Salakhov: Art and Personality

#3 2008 (20)

Tair Salakhov is rightly ranked among the brightest and most significant personalities of the Soviet art world – his work, representative of a whole era in culture due to its magnitude, spiritual richness, imagery, aesthetics and complex metaphors, has fittingly blended with new times, and modernity.

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

Maria Chegodaeva
Zurab Tsereteli: A Sunny Man

№4 2008 (21)

For many Zurab Tsereteli is a unique individual, and the only such one among the people I know – at least among those who play an important role in modern art and modern life. We are living now through a time of anxiety. The world has lost its sure footing, people have lost faith in the old values and, as it seems, in themselves as well – they can no longer get along without technical “crutches”. Lack of confidence in the future, and a panicked anticipation of forthcoming cataclysms dominate, coupled with a fear of failing to keep up with fashions, missing something, receiving less than one is due... The older generation is afraid of being labeled as retrograde. Life – what a frightening thing...

 

 

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