SHEMYAKIN Mikhail Mikhailovich

Born in 1943 in Moscow, the son of actress and military. His father, sooner lost loved ones, was adopted by a White Guard officer Shemyakin. Adoptive father soon disappeared in the fields of civil war, and young Mikhail Shemyakin was the son of Red Army regiment in 13 years (!!!) was one of the first orders of the Red Banner, the name was a lifetime Shemyakin and ... always been proud that belongs to the glorious old Kardanova. (The first traces Kardanova in Russia discovered in the XVI century, . when they came to the ambassadors of Ivan the Terrible and so it remained in service, . as mentioned by Karamzin.) Clan Kardanova has about 65 thousand people, . among which the president of Kabardino-Balkaria, Valery Kokov, . renowned conductor Yuri Temirkanov and other celebrities,
. I kind of have their own anthem, flag and coat of arms. In fact, this whole social organization. Mikhail Shemyakin learned their pedigree in detail as well in adulthood, and only a few years ago, visited the historic home. Took him there with true oriental hospitality, was called in his own way, Muhammad, gave a saber, cap and horse by the name of Karo. Just remembered Shemyakin, called the horse, which had fought in the Great Patriotic War, his father-trooper. To this day, relatives of Mikhail Shemyakin listed a solid part of the population of Kabardino-Balkaria and a huge number Kabardins, scattered throughout the world.

Mom Mikhail Shemyakin, Julia Predtechenskaya, too proud of the antiquity of his noble. In the prewar years, Julia has played in film and theater, and once she had inherited the role of the young Kabardinka. The shooting took place in the same village Kyzburun, where, as it turned out much later, was born Mikhail Shemyakin's future father ... Similar mystical coincidences in life will be many famous artist.

That's one of them. Mikhail Shemyakin's childhood passed in Germany in the town of KцІnigsberg, where he served his father. As a boy he was reading Washington Irving. Then, recalls Mikhail Mikhailovich, he had a dream: a very unusual landscape, the silhouette of some of the mountains ... This dream, he sketched, and already an adult when buying land in America, found that is in place, which coincides with his figure. Then it turned out that the village's Hudson or Hudson, created by Dutch settlers, and Irving wrote of Rip Van Winkle is there. However, despite all the coincidences and predestination, it is called, self-made man - a man who has made himself.

Upon returning to his homeland in 1957 Mikhail Shemyakin entered the Leningrad Secondary Art School named I.E. Repin Academy of Fine Arts. With the city on the Neva River from the artist is connected lot - study, the first creative success, the first exhibition in the editorial office of the Leningrad magazine Zvezda, made his name known (1962). "Russia has trained me as an artist and man. Helped to create his own world - the world of carnivals, the world of my still lifes, which sprang up in me in those early sixties, "- he says. Here he had to try and heavy shocks. The first and not last - expulsion from the school of art: because of his artistic outlook did not meet the norms of socialist realism. In 1959-1961 years Shemyakin labored laborer, but broke with creativity. However, the avant-garde art of the 1960's was driven underground, many artists, including Mikhail Shemyakin, were persecuted. To him also came a new test - compulsory treatment in an experimental psychiatric hospitals.

Later, Mikhail Shemyakin settled in the State Hermitage Museum, where he worked for five years scaffold. In 1967 he created the group "St. Petersburg" and co-authored with philosopher Vladimir Ivanov wrote a metaphysical theory sintezizma dedicated to creating a new icon based on the study of religious art of all time. These studies have found subsequently bring into systematic collection of millions of images on the technical, historical and philosophical categories. In these studies the artist was awarded an honorary doctorate (Doctor Honoris Causa) University of San Francisco (USA), . Cedar Cross College (USA), . European Academy of Arts (France), . Russia's State Humanitarian University (Moscow), . University of Kabardino-Balkaria (Nalchik),
. These studies are ongoing and still in the generated M. Shemyakin Institute of Philosophy and Psychology of Art.

In 1971, the series of persecutions and trials ended for Mikhail Shemyakin deprivation of citizenship and expelled from the country. 10 years he lived and worked in Paris. It became known. In 1974 he was first shown his watercolor series "Petersburg Carnival" brought him world fame. In Paris during Shemyakin made a huge number of records "disgraced" Vysotsky, refitting its workshop in the studio. Since then, the collection of the artist most of the songs the bard. His albums Shemyakin reissued until now. The last time when I was in Moscow, he gave several CDs to the President of Russia Vladimir Putin.

In 1981, Mikhail Shemyakin moved to New York. Here he was elected a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and academician of the arts in Europe. In 1989, having U.S. citizenship, he lived in a small town Klaverak, in the vicinity of New York. All these years his work was exhibited in Europe, the USA, Brazil, Japan, Hong Kong.

Return Shemyakin art in Russia began in 1989, when Moscow and Leningrad were his first since the expulsion of solo exhibitions. In the 1990's solo exhibitions M. Shemyakin held at the Tretyakov Gallery, the Gallery House Nashokin "in Moscow, the Hermitage and the Manege in St. Petersburg.

St.Petersburg M. Shemyakin gave three monuments. On the waterfront in front of Robespierre's "Crosses" are his two-faced "Sphinx" as a tribute to all the repressed in the years of Bolshevism. At the cemetery Sampson monastery monument to the architect-First Builders of St. Petersburg. And, finally, a monument to the beloved Emperor Shemyakin Peter I, which is located on the territory of the fortress. These monuments have become an integral part of the city and organically intertwined in its architectural and artistic fabric.

. Works Shemyakina are in the permanent collection of numerous museums, . including the Metropolitan (New York), . The State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), . The State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), . Museum of Contemporary Art (Paris), . Yad Vashem and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Tel Aviv).,

. Monuments and sculptural M
. Shemyakin set in New York ( "Cybele: Goddess of Fertility), Paris (" Carnival of St Petersburg), Venice (Giacomo Casanova, and a monument to monument in memory of 200-anniversary of the death of Casanova "). He is also author of tombstones actor Savely Kramarova in San Francisco and the monument Manevichi at the St. Petersburg Cemetery. In May 1999, in the center of the university community in the city of Hemsted (New York, . USA) opened a monument to Professor Hofstra University Uecker "Dialogue of Plato with Socrates', . and in 2001 - a monument to Peter I in London in honor of 300 anniversary of the Great Embassy,
.

In 2001, the capital of Moscow Mayor YU.M. Luzhkov, a monument was unveiled MM. Shemyakin "Children - victims of adult vices". This project was conceived and executed as a symbol and a call to fight for the salvation of today and future generations.

Mikhail Shemyakin works in a wide range of technology. Themes of his work is also distinguished by a large range: from theater works to metaphysical studies. He created a series of "Carnival of St Petersburg", "Still Life", "Metaphysical Head," "Angel of Death" and more recently working on a sculpture project "Cocoon" and the 50-figural sculptural composition "Kings and Executioners". Prepare for the city of San Francisco, Russia's monument to seamen.

Established in 1998 in Venice, Giacomo Casanova monument on the waterfront of St. Mark's Square has become an integral part of the traditional Venetian carnival. According to the party troupe Litsedei "Anwar Libabova, once the monument, people gathered in carnival costumes, with traditional music, dances, songs. "As it turned out, were peasants from the Tyrol. He was very close to this monument. It has aestheticism, but it is understandable to all - from the intellectual to the common people ... "

Mystery - Lyrics Shemyakin. At the carnival in Venice, MM. Shemyakin, together with Vyacheslav Polunin and Litsedeyami "implemented a joint project -" metaphysical march ". The huge skull in the form of huge wheels on carts drove slowly along the road to the monument Casanova. His characters were brought in cloaks, masks, costumes of Bioorganic Chemistry, followed by a procession of carnival. It was an impressive spectacle. Culture carnival, color, colors, mysterious combination of games, laughter and absolute seriousness - it shemyakinskoe. Who saw "Carnivals St. Petersburg, agrees. That opinion Anwar Libabova (and probably not the same): "There is a wealth of ideas Shemyakin that based on them can be a metaphysical theater. If you use its forms, costumes, masks, you can do theater interior, street, whatever. So many discoveries for a theatrical environment, the whole world - take da play! "

In general, the theatrical experience Mikhail Shemyakin small. There was, however, now half-mythical, immediately banned production of "The Nose" D. Shostakovich at the conservatory (one show), has been working on the libretto of Crime and Punishment "and, if found in time composer, perhaps Vladimir Vasiliev has put a performance at the Bolshoi, but" if it did not happen. Until recently, was working on Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges ". Also stopped. However, the reason for this was ... new project - "The Nutcracker". The story of its kind, entertaining and also from a number of strange coincidences.

Once Shemyakin saw on television the American version of "The Nutcracker". Setting seemed very outdated on visual range, and the artist fell asleep with the thought: "How good that I am not a professional theater artist, and then after this, I would hang". Two hours later the phone rang: Valery Gergiev, London. Shemyakin He said: "You just do not deny it at once, we are definitely going to do Prokofiev, but first let us make" The Nutcracker "...

. Premiere of "The Nutcracker" at the Mariinsky Theater took place on the night of January 14, 2001 - Old New Year, the most fabulous time when all sorts of magic going
. Shemyakin was the author of costumes, masks, decorations and even worked on the libretto.

In 1993, MM. Shemyakin awarded the State Prize of Russia in the field of literature and art. It is marked by the French Order of "Knight of Art and Literature" (1994), as well as the Medal of Honor "decent" Russia Academy of Arts (1998).

. Mikhail Shemyakin - real workaholic: working day and night, often on several things at once
. Work absorbs it completely, if you could not sleep at all, Shemyakin and certainly would refuse to sleep.

Lives and works in the city Klaverak (New York, USA).