"Dreams and Symbols". Exhibition of works by Mikhail Verkholantsev Automatic translate

The Russian Academy of Arts presents a retrospective exhibition of works by the Honored Artist of the Russian Federation and Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts Mikhail Mikhailovich Verkholantsev “Dreams and Symbols”, dedicated to his 85th birthday. The exposition presents more than sixty graphic and pictorial works, most of which the Moscow audience will see for the first time.

Mikhail Verkholantsev is a unique and gifted person - an engraver, painter, designer, essayist and scientist, singer and musician. He, who professes the aesthetics of the late Renaissance and mannerism, himself seems to be an alien from the Renaissance, but not from the era of calm and quiet harmony of Raphael and Leonardo, but from the period of precisely the late work of the passionate and powerful Michelangelo and Titian. In his works, the author conveys a strange dream, a mysterious recollection of bygone centuries, and also often turns his gaze to the art of symbolism. “All Symbolists from William Morris to Scriabin and Bryusov firmly believed that the Golden Age would come, that there would be a state of total Art, that workers would find happiness, and that Beauty would become essential. Puvis de Chavannes, Paul Verlaine, Isadora Duncan, Maurice Denis, Ferdinand Hodler,

The artist’s works amaze with their figurativeness and unexpected plastic language. He will not take up a chisel or a brush if the motive, already sung by many, does not give him a happy chance to plunge into a wonderful mystical dream again. Drawing, decisive, sharp, which dominates in engravings, is preserved in painting. In his works, Mikhail Verkholantsev follows the traditions of flat painting, where color works for the decorative organization of space. The author’s picturesque canvases are most often transcripts of his miniature engravings, they are very decorative and resemble cardboard tapestries. His characters live in an environment woven from plants, architectural landscapes and the endless sky.

The artist is pursued by several themes, one way or another related to music; they all contain a secret symbolic meaning for him. Art critic I. Ivanov characterizes this feature of the author’s work in the following way: “The musical component in the art of Mikhail Verkholantsev is the most pronounced, both biographically and stylistically. The artist studied folk melos, was fond of ancient music-making and the musical avant-garde of the 20th century, was interested in authentic instruments, even mastered playing the lute, and also sang on the kliros. These diverse musical interests have developed into the corresponding motives of his fine art, penetrating even into the character of plasticity.

The plot, the literary plot for the master is just a pretext for solving internal, cherished, purely plastic tasks. Sophisticated plasticity and amazing musicality - such is the impression from the works of Mikhail Verkholantsev.

MM. Verkholantsev was born in Moscow in 1937 in a family of artists. In 1961 he graduated from the Department of Artistic Wood Processing and Furniture Design of the Moscow Higher School of Art and Design, but in his student years he became interested in woodcuts and book illustration. In the 1960s, he worked as a designer in the training and production and research workshops of the Moscow Higher Art School, taught at the department of industrial graphics, later moved to the RT magazine, participated in the creation of the children’s sound magazine Kolobok, the magazines Sputnik Filmgoer, Family and school". Together with a group of students in 1964 he made a series of portraits of theatrical figures and a curtain for the Taganka Theater. In 1965, the Znanie publishing house published the first book with illustrations by Verkholantsev. In the future, he collaborated with many domestic publishing houses: "Children’s Literature", "Young Guard", "Moscow Worker", "Science", "Progress",

The artist is well known on the international art scene. He represented Russian art at the largest international exhibitions and biennale of graphics and was awarded prizes and medals in Russia (2002, 2004, 2008, 2016, 2019, 2021), Italy (1975, 1991), Denmark (1981), Turkey (2003, 2010), Poland (1973, 1975), Austria (2004), China (2008, 2013), Switzerland (2010), Denmark (1981), Belgium (1982), Italy (1975, 1991), Austria (2004), Turkey (2003, 2010), Switzerland (2010), China (2008, 2013). In 2016, at the XXVI World Congress of the International Federation of Bookplate Societies and the National Graphic Society, she was awarded the Grand Prix, Vologda. In 2019, M. M. Verkholantsev was awarded the Grand Prix of the International Triennial of Printed Graphics in Ufa. In 2020, he was awarded the Main, Special Prize "For Contribution to the World Engraving" at the International Triennial of Printed Graphics in Moscow.

The works of M. M. Verkholantsev are kept in foreign museums and private collections: Finland, Czech Republic, England, Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Holland, France, Austria, Turkey, Argentina, Portugal, Slovenia, Denmark, Poland, Spain, Italy.

The artist has deep scientific knowledge in the field of fine arts, especially the theory and technical methods in engraving and graphics, his articles on art, on the history and technique of woodcuts have been published many times. The high level of the artist’s art and the multifaceted scientific and creative activity determine the level of contemporary art.