Opening of the monument to D.D.Shostakovich by Z.K. Tsereteli in Samara

On September 7, 2019 at 17:00 in Samara, the grand opening of the monument to D. D. Shostakovich created by the People’s Artist of the USSR and Russia, President of the Russian Academy of Arts Zurab Konstantinovich Tsereteli will be held.

The initiative to create the monument belongs to the Cultural Samara Organizing Committee. A bronze monument with a height of more than 3.5 meters is installed in the square on the square named after V.V. Kuybyshev (the intersection of Krasnoarmeyskaya St. and Galaktionovskaya St.). The green zone of the square adjoins the opera and ballet theater, where for the first time in 1942 the Seventh Symphony of Shostakovich was performed. The installation of the monument will be a tribute to memory and respect to the greatest composer of the twentieth century and will perpetuate the events of the history of the military Kuibyshev.

The ceremony will be attended by: Governor of the Samara Region D.I. Azarov Chairman of the Samara Provincial Duma G.P. Kotelnikov, Deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation A.E. Khinshtein, Head of the Samara City District E.V. Lapushkina, Chairman of the City Duma Samara district A.P. Degtev, representatives of the Administration of the Samara city district and members of the Government of the Samara region, President of the Russian Academy of Arts, sculptor Z. K. Tsereteli, vice-presidents of the Russian Academy of Arts A. A. Zolotov and T. A. Ko emasova, members of the Russian Academy of Arts, representatives of city district Samara creative community, residents and visitors.

“Zurab Konstantinovich personally knew Dmitry Dmitrievich, and, like each of those who also had the unforgettable experience of meeting this person and a symbol of our common life in and outside art, he experienced the powerful influence of Shostakovich’s personality and Shostakovich’s work.

Tsereteli’s work is convincing in its artistic decision. Composer Shostakovich appears in all his symbolic growth. The height of the sculpture is not perceived as a mechanical “doubling-tripling” of some worldly reliable value, but as an embodiment of the scale of the artist’s personality, the scale of his art and the artistic significance of Shostakovich’s personality and work in their unique integrity.

The figure was not solved in a chamber key at all, but was comprehended and embodied by the master in the character of Reality itself, which Shostakovich expressed in his writings, in his service to art and people with such a passion, tenderness and perfection of genius.

“Dmitry Shostakovich” Zurab Tsereteli is recognizable in his most essential qualities, the power of character, the subtlety and sensitivity of the mental structure, organizing creative will.

The portrait resemblance is obvious, but this is a portrait image. It contains an artistic generalization of our experience of Shostakovich’s music, ”says Professor Andrei Zolotov, Vice President and Member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Arts, about sculpture.

Information Department (Press Service) of the Russian Academy of Arts