Ilya Glazunov

Born June 10, 1930 in Leningrad. Father - Sergey Fedorovich Glazunov, historian. Mother - Glazunov, Olga K.. Wife - Vinogradova-Benoit Nina (...- 1986). Son - Glazunov Ivan Ilyich, artist. Daughter - Vera I..

Ilya Glazunov - artist, whose name around for several decades, a veritable torrent of controversy. Enthusiasm of the audience accompanied by sharp criticism, in spite of that, interest in the creation of this extraordinary man continues unabated.

"The artist has made me Leningrad - he says - with its slender with huge houses, his Palace Square, his Neva, bridges, wind ... Hermitage - flickering candles, though, reflected in the parquet floor, dark breakthroughs paintings in gilt frames ... How many remember myself - drawing. My first impression of conscious life - a piece of blue sky with a dazzling white foam clouds, road, lost in a field of daisies, and a mysterious forest in the distance. From this moment as if someone had turned on me, saying: "Live!"

. The greatest shock echoed in the artist's soul siege of Leningrad, has remained in the memory of an unrelenting nightmare, when he lost almost all her relatives who died before his eyes, miraculously survived
. 12-year-old boy was taken out of the city across Lake Ladoga, on the road of life under the fascist bombs ...

The memory of the war have always lived in the soul of the artist. Even as an adult, a student at the Leningrad Art Institute I.E. Repin, he expressed his impressions of the war years in "The Roads of War" full of real drama and the truth of life. Glazunov suggested it as a thesis. Academic authorities unanimously rejected the picture, . calling it anti-Soviet, . distorting the truth and the meaning of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet people: "The war is characterized by the victory, . and you smakuete retreat of Soviet troops - this has not happened in Soviet art.,

. The picture was a few years not exposed
. On the famous five-day exhibition, held at the Manege in 1964, he still dared to show it. However, the exhibition was closed, and the picture is transmitted to the House of Officers, which was destroyed. In mid-1980 the artist wrote a repetition of the destroyed paintings. She is now in the Art Museum of Alma-Ata.

... Leaving Leningrad, little Ilya was in the ancient village Canoeing, lost in the dense forests of the Novgorod. Together with the village peers to dig potatoes in the field, worked on the threshing floor, tending a herd of collective. These years have left a deep imprint in the minds of the future artist, he, he owes much to the understanding of the Russian character, a sense of the poetics of the Russian landscape.

The war has not ended, when Ilya Glazunov returned to his native Leningrad. He enrolled in secondary art school that became the Institute name I.E. Repin Academy of Arts of the USSR, where he was engaged in the workshop of the People's Artist of the USSR Professor BV. Johanson. That was a period of finding its way into art, his understanding of realism - as an expression of man's inner world, transmitted through the truth of the objective world. Following the method of the Russian national school, Glazunov at an early stage of his work paid much attention to preparatory work, sketches, plastic solution composition.

Under the high vaults of the academic corridor - the former Imperial Academy of Arts - 25-year-old student of Ilya Glazunov met the woman of their own destiny, who became his wife - Nina Alexandrovna Vinogradov-Benoit. They proceed from the known to all lovers of art Benois family. Her uncle, N.A. Benoit, 30 years was the chief designer at "La Scala", another relative - the world famous director and actor Peter Ustinov. His mother - the sister of my grandmother Nina Alexandrovna - was the daughter of the architect and rector of the Imperial Academy of Arts Leontius Benoit, the brother of Alexander Benois.

. The first exhibition of 26-year-old student of the Leningrad Ilya Glazunov was held in early February 1957 in the Central House of Artists in Moscow
. Unprecedented success of thunder which echoed in the wave of publications in the world press, proclaiming the powerful blow to socialist realism, inflicted by the young artist, has put this event in the category of historical phenomena. The reason for the exhibition was the receipt Glazunov Grand Prix at the World Exhibition of Youth and Students in Prague, for he created the image of an imprisoned writer Julius Fucik. The young artist decided this issue boldly and unexpectedly. He showed well the prison courtyard, where the prisoners were taken for a walk, and they sadly wander around, looking at the ground. And only one, somewhat reminiscent of its features the youngest artist dared to raise your head high and look at the beauty of melting in the sky and clouds swirling in the twilight sky birds. This picture is so unusual and dramatic, shocked not only the international jury in Prague, but the Soviet public.

. Message from the artist to the image of the author of "Reporting with a noose around his neck" was supported by the official ideology of the traditional internationalist sound, and it probably gave reason to assume the development of creativity of the young artist in the future
. But what they saw shocked viewers on his show, included in complete contradiction with the Soviet ideological. The artist presented 80 graphics and paintings. Their creation reflected the creative credo of the artist-realist realism of Dostoevsky - "in the highest sense of the word". "There is nothing more fantastic than reality" or, as one of the favorite artists of Glazunov - MA. Vrubel, "only give birth to a depth of realism and versatility". The flow of visitors who wanted to get to the exhibition, grew with each passing hour, as the day it was due to discuss the government for taming the passions police, which later became the attribute and other exhibitions Glazunov. Official criticism at first was in a state of shock, then at the creativity of the young artist broke fierce controversy, dividing the audience into two irreconcilable camps.

And today the name of Ilya Glazunov - litmus paper, which immediately reveals a person's world. No coincidence that one of the great writers of our time said unequivocally: "Those who are against Glazunov, is against Russia. And vice versa ". Spectators and the authors of publications, . favored the emergence of a daring talent, . noted his deep national character, . talked about the truth of life and poetic vision, . the opening of new and fresh interpretations of such eternal topics, . like love, . the special sensitivity to the themes of the tragic and unusual sound for a young artist's depth of penetration into the world of Dostoevsky,
. Others saw in his art enthusiasm western trends, decadence and pessimism. It is in this spirit, there was discussion of the exhibition in the highest party authorities, who received a hitherto unknown student. After the exhibition closed, ideological battles around it did not end that, in largely complicated the whole future destiny of Glazunov.

. Most researchers and even the artist himself is divided into four major cycles in his work.

. Life contemporary poetry of everyday life of a big city - its lyrical theme of "urban cycle", which includes such films as "Leningrad Spring", "City", "Last Bus", "She left" and others
. In a city characterized by Glazunov particular psychological mood that conveys the artist's state of mind. Sometimes Glazunov expresses the mood of his lyrical, showing the city, seen through his eyes.

"Proud glory of their ancestors, not only can but should not respect thereof - was a shameful indifference" - the words of Alexander Pushkin's become the motto of Glazunov's work over the cycle "The History of Russia. "History of Russia - is a daring and wars, fires and unrest, riots and executions, the victories and accomplishments, - says the artist. - There were moments of humiliation, but punched per hour, and Russia revived from the ashes more beautiful, stronger and more surprising. History of Russia - the red flame of revolution and faith in the future. But there is no future without a past. I believe in the future of mankind, I believe that it has inspired a new art, equal to the tops of the past and, perhaps, higher ... "More than 20 years dedicated to the artist cycle" History of Russia "and continues his. Oleg and Igor ", . "Prince Igor", . "Two Princes", . "Russian Icarus", . "Seeing the troops", . "Eve" (Dmitry Donskoy and Sergiy Radonezhsky the eve of the Battle of Kulikovo), . "Andrei Rublev", . "Russian Beauty", . "Mystery of the XX century", . "Eternal Russia" and many other canvases sing the difficult and heroic destiny of Ancient Russia,
.

An important stage of the artist's career - an illustration of literary works. If the cycle "City" compared with the lyric poetry, then write about the cycle of illustrations that in Russia it appears in all its social complexity, intersectionality. Illustrations to the Melnikov's Crypt, Nikitina, Nekrasov, Leskov, Ostrovsky, Lermontov, Blok, Kuprin ... From reading all of the writer, from his books Glazunov wants to restore the visible image of the country - such as it crystallized in the mind of the writer. And that can eventually Glazunov, not always "illustration" in the literal sense of the word: this is a picturesque addition to the text of the writer, and independent work. The cycle of these products is some sort of an encyclopedia of Russian life of former times. The name of the artist Glazunov sometimes associated with the name F.M. Dostoevsky's cycle of illustrations, executed his works, in a visible form conveys the thought-images of the writer. Dostoevsky taught Glazunov "seek man in man", in everyday reality, to feel great progress since its eternal fierce bout of good and evil, "where the field of battle - the heart of man".

Fourth cycle of works are portraits of contemporaries Glazunov. "I write in silence, - says Ilya. - I need to feel the inner music of the soul of the man whose portrait I am writing. The ideal situation - if this sounds classical music: it creates a mood. Each portrait - an exam for me, I have no right to write his care. Everyone - the universe, each extremely interesting: the builder, and the astronaut, and a famous actress, and Vietnamese opolchenka, and miner, and students working on BAM ... Draw a person does not mean to draw a compliment to him, no, just tell the truth! And it should be similar, otherwise it is not a portrait. Portrait - a document of the human spirit, the real form of humanism ".

With many portraits made by Glazunov, look eloquent, exciting, penetrating into the soul of the viewer's eyes. For the artist's characteristic depth psychology, the ability to recognize the inner world of the represented person, to express her spiritual life.

Particularly interesting portrait of his wife Glazunov - "Nina". Artist of the famous dynasty of artists Benoit, Nina became a companion, friend, assistant Glazunov. Their children, Ivan and Vera, too, have become prototypes for the characters of many paintings Glazunov

. Ilya Sergeyevich painted portraits of workers and farmers, . writers and public figures, . men of science and art: Salvador Allende, . Urho Kekkonen, . Fellini, . David Alfaro Siqueiros, . Gina Lollobrigida, . Mario del Monaco, . Domenico Modugno, . Innocent Smoktunovskij, . Cosmonaut Vitaly Sevastyanov, . Sergey Smirnov ..,
. Much has been written from the scene. Whether it's Chile, China, France, Italy or Russia (the construction of the Baikal-Amur railway, towns and villages of Russia).

Once on the Volga, in a village hut, the artist saw the icon, the salary which was embroidered with freshwater pearls and glass beads. Their harmony was "like a frozen window, like a ripe field of rye - the whole range of beauty and unique form of expression". And the idea: to write on the board inlaid with pearls. This collage ( "Ivan the Terrible, Boris Godunov," Prince "and others) reinforces the psychology of the image, revives the charm of the ancient art of Russian artists

. In breadth of vision, . with all the diversity of themes and graphic tools, . high skills of the painter, . distinctive pattern and color, . manners and the handwriting in the main work of Ilya Glazunov - the wholeness of perception of the world, . his philosophical, . ideological impulse, . spirituality,
. His work covered a reflection of the fire that burns in my soul, directing the flow of thought. All of this makes sense to the artist's life.

The creative biography of the master is inextricably linked to the theater. While still a student he was passionate about music, art, outstanding singers and musicians, even wanted to become a theater artist. That momentum gave the fruit to mature period when together with his wife, a fine connoisseur of Russian costume, he created a stunning design for the opera "Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia H. Rimsky-Korsakov, the Bolshoi Theater, "Prince Igor" A. Borodin and "The Queen of Spades II. Tchaikovsky at the Berlin opera, the ballet "Carnival" A. Khachaturian at the Odessa Opera House ...

Here they continued the tradition of great Russian artists - such as in. Vasnetsov, A. Benoit K. Korovin, A. Golovin, and others, laid at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the basic principles of modern theatrical-decorative art. Performances with decorations created from sketches IS. Glazunov, resuscitating the spirit of the famous "Russian Seasons" in Paris, had a huge success. Theater critics enthusiastically spoke of "singing painting" Glazunov, who was walking, as usual, and against the current modernist movement that swept the theater stage, and against the treasury of naturalism.

. For many Russian artists, especially the past school Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts, remained unchanged interest in architecture
. Could not be alien to him and Ilya Glazunov, who grew up in an atmosphere of palaces native Peter. His first project was an architectural competition project of the museum of folk art in Palekh, made jointly with the young architect Polikarpov in the tradition of "new Russian style," crushed in the onslaught of the vanguard of the Revolution. This project, which sharply differed from the others, caught the eye and liked the then Foreign Minister AA. Gromyko. Soon Glazunov was invited to Madrid, where he then built a new building of the Soviet Embassy. But it left only work on the interiors. In the lobby and halls of the building, . constructed by the canons of "korbyuzevskogo" thinking, . suddenly opened majestic sovereign spirit of Russian architecture, . who came from St. Petersburg's favorite artist and best creations of domestic architecture! Mayor of Madrid Terno Galvan said, . that the interior decoration of the Spanish capital will,
. A Spanish journalist wrote that "not even need to travel to Russia, all known from the works of Glazunov.

Special milestone in the biography of Glazunov was a battle to save the historic Moscow - or rather, what was left of it to the beginning of 1970. It is known that especially severely damaged the city in 1930 with the implementation of the plan for its reconstruction, cherished Lazar Kaganovich. The relic was in Russia, depicted in numerous works, which led to the thrill of foreigners with their beauty, Kaganovich proclaimed "unimaginable chaos, as if created by a drunken workman", to be destroyed for the sake of building "new Communist Cities. Subsequent replanning and restructuring brought Moscow to the state that she was removed from the international registry of historic towns.

. Ilya with his associates created a great album, . showing the former Moscow, . peerless specimen of the world urban art, . and reflecting the irreparable loss, . inflicted capital, . which threatened to turn into a faceless town,
. This fundamental work has become a strong argument in the hands of Glazunov, constantly bombarding the highest authorities. Together with the famous composer Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov he managed to collect the signatures of the most prominent figures of science and culture of the letter to the Politburo. The general plan was put on display in the Manege and criticized by outraged public. After that he was "cut down" the names of its sponsors to withdraw from representation at the Lenin Prize, and at GlavAPU Moscow was established a public council, without whose sanction the destruction of historic buildings could not be accepted.

. Ilya continues to take an active part in the revival of its former magnificence of Old Moscow
. Among his works in recent years - a direct part in the restoration and reconstruction of buildings of the Moscow Kremlin, including the Grand Kremlin Palace.

. The great creators, regardless of their creative profession, has always felt an irresistible attraction to the word confessional
. The essence of the attraction well defined, Ivan Ilyin: "They should not only create but also to teach, not only to create works, but also overhear their creativity and tell about it to other people who does ... Not the most burning - burning need to teach others. "

I could not avoid this path and Ilya Glazunov. In 1965-1966 years in several issues of the journal "Young Guard" was published his book "The Road to You" - a lyrical confession on the way to the knowledge of Russia, . its rich history and great culture, . stands out among other cultures of its Orthodox spirituality,
. In those years, when the very notion of "the Russian national consciousness" was deleted from the lexicon, this book is seen as a hymn to the historical existence of Russia, its national greatness.

. Thoughts and foreboding, as described in the book, Ilya Glazunov persistently developed later in the works, and in their oral and printed statements
.

The beginning of 1960 IS. Glazunov created a patriotic club "Motherland", the activities of which were involved in many authoritative people of the country. The club became one of the first nurseries of national identity. Alas, after some time it was liquidated. Organization of the All-Russia Society for Protection of Monuments of History and Culture, who gave a legal and stable opportunity to fight for national shrines - too much credit Glazunov.

Ilya Glazunov is headed by a portrait studio at the Institute Surikov. The initiative of IS. Glazunov in the capital of Russia in 1987 created a unique institution - Russia Academy of Painting, . Sculpture and Architecture, . in which instruction in specialties: "Painting", . "Sculpture", . "restoration and painting technology", . "architecture", . "History and Theory of Art",
. "I believe that the mission of the teacher-artist - to educate a person that understands the time and has the entire arsenal of high-realism school of the past, say, the Renaissance, the best Russian masters".

Ilya Glazunov and still remains one of the most popular Russian artists. His exhibition is a triumph for the capital and largest city of the planet - from Madrid to Tokyo, convey the soul and life of Russia to world civilization.

. According to a survey conducted by VTsIOM in 1999 on the eve of its 70 th anniversary of IS
. Glazunov, he called "the most outstanding artist of the twentieth century". His name was given one of the smaller planets, and UNESCO awarded him its highest award - the gold medal for outstanding contribution to world culture. King of Laos, as a young man who knew Chaliapin, Glazunov awarded the Order of Vishnu, Indira Gandhi, presented the award named after Dr.. Nehru, Portuguese Prince Bragantsa - the Order of St. Michael. Two old Spanish Royal Academy of Arts - in Madrid and Barcelona - Glazunov elected an honorary member.

IS. Glazunov - People's Artist of the USSR (1980), . State Prize Laureate (1997) for the restoration of the Moscow Kremlin, . Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1973), . Member of Russia Academy of Fine Arts (2000), . Professor, . permanent rector of Russia Academy of Painting, . Sculpture and Architecture, . Member of the Academy of Management in Education and Culture (1997).,

. "Of all the formidable, immense world Ilya Glazunov took and made the main target of the image homeland, native people, its history and its spiritual world ..
. He was master of a distinctive creative handwriting of the artist sharp, bright with intense flavor. His paintings are inspired by and leave no one indifferent ... The Art of Ilya Glazunov communicates to us the living truth of the history of eternal Russia, the spiritual beauty and strength of national character "- so wrote about the People's Artist of the USSR Ilya Glazunov writer Vladimir Soloukhin.

Lives and works in Moscow.