"Dmitry Zhilov (1891–1959). Painting, sculpture, graphics"

The new exhibition of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan represents the work of Dmitry Stepanovich Zhilov, a little-known artist in Kazan, who went down in the history of Soviet art as one of the sculptors of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow during its heyday. The exhibition presents 45 paintings, drawings and sculptures, carefully preserved by the daughter of the artist.

Dmitry Zhilov is a man of multifaceted talent, in which artistic and scientific talents are combined. In the 1910s, he was one of the most talented students of the Kazan Art School, who graduated with excellent marks in all professional disciplines - painting, sculpture, drawing, having received the right to enter the Higher Art School at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. The great Kazan artists and teachers Nikolay Feshin, Vasily Bogatyrev, Pavel Benkov had a great influence on him. Already during his studies, Dmitry Zhilov exhibited his works at major art exhibitions in Kazan; together with P.P. Benkov designed theatrical productions, which earned rave reviews from the public precisely for his scenery.

The years of the First World War, revolutionary events, the creation of a family and the birth of a child led to the fact that Dmitry Zhilov had to change his professional activity. In a new field - he graduated from the Saratov Agricultural Institute - his talent as a research scientist was manifested. D.S. Zhilov graduated from the graduate school of the All-Union Institute of Animal Husbandry in Moscow, successfully defended his thesis and received the degree of candidate of biological sciences. The methods developed by him were introduced into production and were included in university textbooks.

In 1938, when D.S. Zhilov on the recommendation of Academician N.V. Tsitsin was transferred to the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VSHV) by the methodologist of the Animal Husbandry pavilion, a new stage in his life began. In parallel with the scientific and methodological work, he created a bas-relief project for the facade of the pavilion, which was highly appreciated and accepted for execution. Above the bas-relief of D.S. Zhilov worked with B.I. Urmanche, with whom he was bound by strong bonds of friendship and creative cooperation.

From this moment, the artist Dmitry Zhilov returned to creative activity. He was transferred to the Architectural and Artistic Workshops of the All-Union Exhibition of Artists, where he held the posts of technical, then artistic director of sculptural work, with a break for the war years when the All-Union Art Exhibition was closed. In 1944, when it was decided to restore the work of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, Dmitry Zhilov headed the restoration of the exterior sculpture and park vases. In the post-war years, when new pavilions were built, new monumental works were created, Dmitry Zhilov worked on his own art projects. His bas-reliefs and sculptures adorned various exhibition pavilions: Agriculture, Mechanization, Viticulture, the RSFSR, the Georgian SSR, etc., embodying the achievements of the Soviet national economy and reflecting a return to academic standards, which became the basis of the socialist realism style, which has taken dominant positions in Soviet art since the mid-1930s. x years. The most significant of Dmitry Zhilov’s works was a monument to the outstanding Soviet scientist-breeder I.V. Michurin, who was cast in bronze and installed in 1954 in the Michurinsky Garden of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, where it is still located.

In recent years, when interest in the achievements of Soviet realistic art increased, when the complex VSHV-VDNH was restored as an outstanding monument of Soviet architecture and Soviet monumental art, the name of Dmitry Zhilov returned to the audience as one of the masters of Soviet realistic sculpture, which made a significant contribution to the creation of the All-Union Exhibition of Artists. The artist’s first solo exhibition, opened at the Pushkin Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan, presents him, first of all, as a painter and draftsman, a prominent representative of the Kazan Art School of the 1910s, pointing to the origins of his talent and successful creative activity in the middle of the twentieth century.

Olga Ulemnova