"From the beginning", to the 30th anniversary of the workshop of Nikolai Andronov, Pavel Nikonov and Yuri Shishkov

Russian Academy of Arts and Moscow State Academic Art Institute. V. I. Surikov at the Russian Academy of Arts present an exhibition project for the 30th anniversary of the workshop of Nikolai Andronov, Pavel Nikonov and Yuri Shishkov “From the Beginning”. The exhibition includes about 80 works by authors dating back to the beginning of the history of the workshop, that is, those who studied in the first decade of its formation. These are Rustam Akhmedov, Alexey Lantsev, Tatyana Malyukova, Sergey Shekhovtsov, Tamara Mamontova, Natalya Khokhlova-Lantseva, Ekaterina Lebedeva, Viktor Zvyagintsev, Natalya Zinchenko, Fyodor Usachyov, Maria Brovkina, Olga Podisova, Maria Suvorova, Maxim Glukhov, Alexander Glukhov, Natalya Sitnikova, Dmitry Samodin, Maxim Smirennomurensky and others.

The pedagogical, or rather human principle, which was laid down by Andronov, is continued by Nikonov and is supported to the end by Shishkov - treating the student as a colleague, caring attitude, respect and interest in a person who has decided on the path of an artist. All three were characterized by constant restlessness, uncompromisingness and indefatigable energy - they generously shared this with their students.

Changing with generations of students, the workshop, with all the leaders, retained its integrity and traditions. It existed as a block of like-minded people and, in fact, in 1990-2000 was an active creative association. Students and graduates were in the public eye, participated in youth exhibitions of the Moscow Union of Artists, exhibited in many halls and museums, created large projects on their own and together with teachers.

The workshop has always been surrounded by a struggle of opinions and criticism. There were reproaches for the abuse of learned techniques, characteristic of the "severe style" and mechanically, without understanding, adopted from professors; only formal plastic moves, for which the plot does not matter, in an excessive, in the end, resemblance to teachers.

However, the path and current creative image of the graduates of the workshop shows the fidelity of that pedagogical approach. In their contemporary work, both serious plastic and ideological differences and similarities are obvious. These are different artists. But their common special attitude to nature and the absence of illusion, the choice of "non-formal" themes, their own interpretation of space, the desire for reinforced compositional structures demonstrate loyalty to one basic principles learned during the years of study.

In 1992, at the Moscow State Academic Art Institute. V. I. Surikov opened a new studio of easel painting under the guidance of the artist of the sixties, one of the founders of the "severe style", People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, laureate of the USSR State Prize, full member of the Russian Academy of Arts, Professor Nikolai Ivanovich Andronov. His associate Yuri Alekseevich Shishkov became an assistant. Tatyana Malyukova, Rustam Akhmedov and Sergey Shekhovtsov became the first students of the workshop in the same year.

Deeply convinced of the paramount importance of composition and its study, Andronov and Shishkov built the whole process as an immersion in a traditional compositional environment. Tireless everyday practical work, "craft" was combined with the development of a colossal layer of theoretical knowledge and traditions that go through the entire history of art. Just like the "discipline of the craft", Andronov attached the greatest importance to the inseparability of the connection between generations of artists.

Understanding the transience of time and the amount of knowledge that his students would have to master, he ensured that students were enrolled in the workshop immediately from the first year, contrary to the system that had developed at the institute. So in 1994 a large group of first-year students came at once, in 1995 - the second.

The impact of the power of Andronov’s personality on students and not only students was enormous. The principle and firmness of his artistic position was stunning. The appearance of Andronov at the institute led to the creation of the department of composition. Renewed interest in theory, Nikolai Ivanovich himself - a true master, a theoretician of composition - lectured. A powerful, active creative life was constantly in full swing in the workshop, there were disputes, exhibitions were being prepared, a sea of books looked, piles of paper and canvases were painted. But in November 1998, Andronov died.

The workshop was headed by the People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, twice winner of the State Prize, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, Professor Pavel Fedorovich Nikonov. Energetic and tireless, he filled the space with new tasks, at the same time developing the old ideological and plastic line. His energy inspired me to search for other moves and solutions, new options for working with the image and plane. As before, composition was at the forefront. The merging of Andronov’s compositional systems and Nikonov’s color space significantly diversified and enriched the students’ artistic language. The influence of Pavel Fedorovich is difficult to overestimate, it was a swift stream and a fierce battle for freedom in painting. Over the course of eight years of work, he brought up a number of interesting, bright artists, and to this day he participates in the affairs of the institute,

From 2006 to 2010, Albina Georgievna Akritas, muralist, painter and graphic artist, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, took over the workshop, with Yury Shishkov as her assistant.

Honored Artist of the Russian Federation and Academician of the Russian Academy Yuri Alekseevich Shishkov was a real keeper of the workshop’s traditions. An excellent painter and composer, a principled and attentive teacher, he worked here from the first day, and since 2010, for the last ten years, he has been the leader. He was loved by all generations of students and painstakingly sorted out their mistakes not only in art, spoke about life, shared both artistic and life experience. Teaching monumental techniques, working together with students on the murals of the temple in Bezhetsk and the chapel near Kalyazin, lecturing on monumental and easel composition, Yuri Alekseevich seemed to want to give the children everything that Andronov did not have time to do. He passed away in April 2020. It was twenty-eight years of continuous work with students, twenty-eight years of service to art and ideas,