"Understories". Exhibition project by Dmitry Tugarinov and Valery Arkhipov at the Russian Academy of Arts

The Russian Academy of Arts presents the exhibition project "NedoKazki", the exposition of which will consist of sculptural compositions by the People’s Artist of Russia, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts Dmitry Nikitovich Tugarinov and motion picture sketches of the Honored Artist of Russia, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts Valery Valentinovich Arkhipov.

Plots of Russian fairy tales, legends and epics are one of the innermost themes in the work of Valery Arkhipov, presented in his explications to films, book illustrations, painting and graphic series, products of the Imperial Porcelain Factory. The author’s handwriting of these "fabulous" works of the master, regardless of the technique of execution and scale, is always recognizable. Each work of Arkhipov is filled with a special drama, tells its own story, drawing the viewer into a world whose air you want to breathe. In the sketches for the film "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" and the opera by N. Rimsky-Korsakov "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia" the artist created an amazing iconographic panorama of colorful images of fairytale and mythological heroes.

Immersing himself in the poetics of the Russian fairy tale, V.V. Arkhipov visualizes on his canvases its inherent magical component, which is always emphasized and supplemented by accurately reproduced historical details of the life of Ancient Russia - from tent bell towers and many-domed temples on wide panoramas of the Russian land to the ornamental pattern of princely chambers and royal robes, heroic armor and jewelry studded with precious stones. As a result of such a fusion of the magical and the authentic, a world filled with the "Russian spirit" is being built, where the appearance of fairy-tale heroes and their miraculous deeds are perceived as a natural and integral part of the surrounding space. This world created by V.V.Arkhipov’s brush forms an artistic parallel to the fabulous text,throwing a pictorial bridge to the origins of the national worldview and the fundamental foundations of Russian culture.

Dmitry Tugarinov has been creating sculptural portraits and figurative compositions since the early 1980s. Each of his works has implications. In the compositions, there is virtually no plot, it is replaced by a metaphor, a plastic paradox, grotesque dominates. The sculptor often takes a well-known parable or fairy tale as the basis of his works and reads it in the context of today’s problems. A plastic formula for a typical life situation arises: "The Golden Donkey" (1987) - one character becomes completely dependent on another, "Once upon a time there was a king" (1989) - a man who had everything and lost everything.

Alexander Pushkin’s "Golden Cockerel" became for Tugarinov a magic box of "golden ideas". He got the opportunity to express his own thoughts, giving them a material form, and created several sculptural versions of Pushkin’s work. This tale is not just a fairy tale, it is a metaphor for the Russian way of life, a warning and encouragement to those who have fallen prey to their own crazy ideas and unbridled hobbies.

The sculpture “Once upon a time there was a king”, presented at the exhibition, is an interpretation of the famous parable, according to which one can have only three objects, but at the same time feel like a king. Each is his own King and himself bears the burden of his own treasures and mistakes. Tugarin’s "Tsar" lost, in his arms there is only a wooden stake, he must start all over again.

Tugarinov’s works are distinguished by an extremely modern range of images, although traditional features familiar to everyone are guessed in them. The images created by the sculptor are significant and ironic. It is no coincidence that the author is called "Gogol in Sculpture".

Dmitry Nikitovich Tugarinov - People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, Professor of the Department of Sculpture and Composition at the Moscow State Academic Art Institute. V.I.Surikov.

Russian sculptor who created monuments to Generalissimo A. V. Suvorov (1999, Saint-Gotthard Pass, Switzerland), Generalissimo A. V. Suvorov (2001, Paniks Pass, Switzerland), founder of the Askania-Nova Nature Reserve (Ukraine) Friedrich Falz -Fein (2008-2009, Natural Reserve Askania-Nova, Ukraine), Duke Friedrich Ferdinand of Anhalt-Ketensky (2012, Askania-Nova, Ukraine); the monumental sculptural composition "Ascension" (1997, Park "Muzeon", Moscow); high relief "Blacksmith and carpenter" (2014, museum-estate of the Hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, General I. Voronin, Yaroslavl region); recreated the compositions "Tsarina Elena", "Emperor Constantine" for the sculptural decoration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow (1994 - 1999) and other works.

Valery Valentinovich Arkhipov - Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, Professor and Dean of the Art Faculty of VGIK.

Film and theater artist who has participated in the creation of more than 40 films. He worked on the films Portraying the Victim (directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, 2006), The Seagull (directed by Margarita Terekhova, 2005), Boris Godunov (directed by Vladimir Mirzoev, 2011), Russian Wives (directed by Yuri Arabov, 2014), “Not Now” (2010) and “Left and Didn’t Return” (2011) directed by Valery Pendrakovsky, “Immortals” (Tigran Keosayan, 2021) and many others.