Summer. Clouds. Efrem Zverkov and the winners of the E.I. Zverkov Landscape Competition. On the 105th anniversary of the artist’s birth. Automatic translate

The Russian Academy of Arts presents an exhibition commemorating the 105th anniversary of the birth of People’s Artist of the USSR and full member of the Russian Academy of Arts, Efrem Ivanovich Zverkov (1921-2012). The exhibition will feature approximately 30 paintings by the renowned artist from the collection of the E. I. Zverkov Landscape Gallery (Tver), as well as 15 paintings by winners of the annual E. I. Zverkov youth creative landscape competition "Tver Landscape."

The paintings on display in the Academy’s galleries reveal the fundamental philosophical message of this front-line artist, who traversed the roads of the Great Patriotic War from its first day until the victorious days of May: "Every corner of our native land, even the smallest, is infinitely precious, and people must cherish this vast world, this incredible planet called Earth." Recognized as a classic of fine art during his lifetime, his work, extensive and multifaceted activities, and his work actively influenced the development of the artistic life of our country. He was a laureate of the I.E. Repin State Prize of the RSFSR, the State Prize of the Russian Federation, and the Prize of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. He was also a recipient of the Order of Honor and the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 3rd and 4th Classes of the Russian Federation. From the 1950s, he served on the leadership of the Moscow Union of Artists and the Unions of Artists of the RSFSR and the USSR, and was a member of the International Council of Museums and the State Expert and Advisory Council on Monumental Art under the Government of the Russian Federation. In 1992, he became a member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Arts, and in 1997, he became its vice president. The Academy, paying tribute to the master’s memory, traditionally prepares exhibition projects to mark his anniversaries.

The artist was born on February 1, 1921, in the village of Nesterovo in the Tver region. His first steps in art were at an art studio in Kalinin (now Tver), where he studied drawing and painting with N. Ya. Borisov, a student of the renowned Ilya Repin. From 1941 to 1945, he fought on the front lines of the Great Patriotic War and was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd Class, and medals. Having endured tragic trials, he vowed to himself: "If I am destined to survive the war, I will paint bright landscapes." A desire to celebrate peacetime prompted him to enroll in the Surikov Moscow Art Institute, from which he graduated with honors in 1953. From his mentor and close friend, Arkady Plastov, he took up the baton of the Russian realist school — broad, free thinking, a sense of truth, and, at the same time, a bright and emotional perception of the world. He was among those who blazed new trails in Russian art in the 1960s. He was the first Moscow artist to explore the Russian North, making six extended artistic journeys to the Komi Republic and the Arkhangelsk Region in the late 1950s and 1960s. This had a significant impact on his work and the nature of his interactions with nature — he became one of the first to exemplify the "severe style" in landscape painting.

The artist had a keen sense of the natural poetry of Central Russia and, despite the plastic generalization of his paintings, masterfully conveyed its changing appearance, the diversity of transitional tones and shades, and the characteristic features of a particular location. Both the intimate and monumental images reveal a desire to convey the mood and expression of a person’s inner spiritual state.

Combining the traditions of the Moscow school with his own original approach, he created his own style of national landscape art. The artist himself spoke of his work: “Every artist has both a task and a supertask, as Stanislavsky said. For me, landscape has proven to be the shortest route to resolving the question that has defined my entire creative life… I have always been convinced that it is in landscape that I can most fully express myself, reveal my talent, and that it is my destiny in art. I paint what I feel, what I love, what I cannot imagine my life without. I paint with complete spiritual dedication. I paint freely, selflessly…”

Efrem Ivanovich always paid special attention to the development of young talents, doing much to cultivate the high moral potential of new generations and continue the great traditions of our country’s fine arts. The exhibition will be complemented by paintings by winners of the annual E. I. Zverkov Youth Creative Landscape Competition. This project was organized in 2006 at the initiative of the artist himself and N. G. Sirotin, Director of the A. G. Venetsianov Tver State Art College and Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Arts. The event aims to support students’ professional growth, their moral and spiritual development, and the preservation of a unique Russian school of painting.

Press service of the Russian Academy of Arts based on articles by Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts L. I. Shirshova.