"KOSTA KHETAGURS. COMMUNICATION OF TIMES"

Russian Academy of Arts

Art Museum named after M.S. Tuganov

Republic of North Ossetia-Alania

Regional Public Fund for the Promotion of Culture

"World of the Caucasus"

present an exhibition of the artist’s works from the collection of the M.S. Tuganov Art Museum and masters of modern fine art.

Vernissage - October 15, 2014, 5 p.m.

The exhibition runs from October 7 to 26, 2014.

Zurab Tsereteli Art Gallery: Prechistenka, 19

The outstanding Ossetian poet Kosta Levanovich Khetagurov (1859 - 1906) was the first professional artist of Ossetia. But its scope is much wider. Costa was a poet, prose writer, playwright, publicist, artist, successfully tried himself in the performance of sketches and scenery for performances. His life became a phenomenon that marked a radical turn in the spiritual development of the Ossetian people and left a deep mark in his culture.

Konstantin Levanovich Khetagurov was born in the mountain aul Nar of the Vladikavkaz district of the Terek region on October 15, 1859.

From 1871 to 1881 he studied at the Stavropol men’s classical gymnasium, which for many years was the center of the educational and artistic life of the city. In the gymnasium he mastered the basics of visual literacy. His teacher was a pupil of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts Vasily Smirnov, who helped open up the talent of Costa. Smirnov sent his most successful works to Moscow at the All-Russian exhibition of works by students of secondary schools, where they received good reviews. It was on the advice of Smirnov in 1881 that Costa held exams and was admitted to the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He studied under Professor P.P. Chistyakov. Thanks to Chistyakov, Kosta Khetagurov removed the world view of the artist-realist from the walls of the Academy.

In 1885, due to lack of funds for training, he was forced to leave the Academy and return to Vladikavkaz.

In the further works of Costa, literature prevails. Assessing the significant superiority of literature in the heritage of K. Khetagurov, we must not forget that creativity for him was a social function - a weapon, a means of struggle.

His career is in deep thought about the fate of his native people. Costa’s journalistic speeches in local and metropolitan periodicals, poetry, intransigence in the struggle against those in power, and the defense of popular interests frighten the tsarist administration, which pursues the artist, and sends him outside his native land.

In 1891, Costa sought the cancellation of the decision to close the Olginsky women’s school, then the administrative expulsion of the poet followed, but this did not break his spirit. One after another there are articles, poetic masterpieces; the poet collaborates with the newspaper "North Caucasus", publishes articles in the "St. Petersburg Gazette", in the "Son of the Fatherland".

Khetagurov’s literary work is largely consistent with his painting. It serves as a visible embodiment of the poetic images he created (“On the school bench of life” (1886-1890), “Behind the water”).

Canvases of Costa are sometimes consonant with the melody of his poetry, and sometimes they surprise with surprises in the arrangement of emotional and figurative-semantic accents.

A special area of the works of Khetagurov is composed of works on biblical subjects. This includes both easel works and monumental paintings made by him for the Alagir Church. Studying the iconography of religious painting, Costa in his works came to an independent interpretation of religious subjects, putting great human thoughts and feelings into them.

The simplicity of pictorial means, the exact transfer of portrait similarity and the internal content of the model is characteristic of the entire portrait painting of Costa. With great warmth, portraits of Tutti Tkhostova and Misyrbi Gutiev were executed, they are strict in drawing and nobly restrained in painting. And the portrait of A. Tsalikova (1898), which occupied a large place in the life and work of Costa, was decided in a completely different way.

The key to revealing the characters of the characters becomes an accented, extremely restrained look. The artist achieves the greatest success in this sense in Self-Portrait. There is nothing superfluous, distracting in him, only the face of the artist, captured strictly in front. From the darkened space of the circle, the artist’s eyes, penetrating and full of sadness, look straight at the viewer. The image impresses with its great inner strength and depth.

Spiritual lyricism attracts Costa landscapes; their distinctive quality is their delight in the marvelous corners of their native nature.

The contribution of Kost Khetagurov to the art of Ossetia and Russia is undeniably significant. The name, word and artistic images of Costa, his thoughts, ideas and dreams are alive among the people. And for the master, for the creator, this is the true life, perhaps even more real than that which was released by fate.

Inspired by him, the fine art of Ossetia of the twentieth century and today is rightfully recognized as one of the most interesting and full-blooded phenomena of contemporary art culture in Russia. Starting from Kosta Khetagurov and Makharbek Tuganov, dozens of artists have received and continue to receive professional education at the Academy of Arts. Young artists of the new time continue and develop the undertakings of the older generations of masters, they become creators of modern art in Ossetia, demonstrating a wide range of trends and styles, working in almost all genres and types of art, combining the national artistic tradition and the experience of modern art. A visible embodiment of the achievements of different generations, united and inspired by the theme of “Khetagurov Kosta. Connection of the times, ”is this exhibition.