"World creation". Exhibition of works by D. D. Zhilinsky

In the halls of the Russian Academy of Arts at: st. Prechistenka, house 21 opens an exhibition of works by the largest painter, people’s artist of Russia, academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, State Prize laureate Dmitry Dmitrievich Zhilinsky (1927 - 2015) - “CREATION OF THE WORLD”, dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the artist.

The exposition presents more than 150 sketches and drawings made by the artist for his main works. Many of them are exhibited for the first time.

D. Zhilinsky is a unique master of drawing, composition, completeness of poetic space. In his work, he addresses the highest manifestations of the human spirit, professes high moral and aesthetic ideals, harmony and beauty, and the perfection of the plastic form. His painting impresses with its internal expressiveness, personal emotional mood.

The works of D. Zhilinsky are associated with eternal values - beauty in all its manifestations, the spirituality of man in everything that surrounds him. The artist’s characters, written in a manner reminiscent of old masters, are estranged from the fuss and banality of everyday life, they are full of peace of mind, reflection and contemplative calm, after which viewers read the deep meaning and emotions introduced by the author.

D. Zhilinsky was born in Sochi in 1927. In 1944-46 studied at the Moscow Institute of Applied and Decorative Arts, and from 1946 to 1951. - at the picturesque faculty of the Moscow Art Institute. V.I. Surikova, where his teachers were famous masters of Russian fine art N.M. Chernyshev, S. A. Chuykov, P. D. Korin, A. M. Gritsay. In Moscow D. Zhilinsky lived with relatives, remarkable artists N. Ya. Simonovich-Efimova and I. S. Efimov, their neighbors in the Red House were such artists as V. A. Favorsky, D. M. Shakhovskaya and others. All his life with gratitude D. Zhilinsky recalled his teachers, who taught him the skill to understand and appreciate the great in art.

Since 1951 - a regular participant in art exhibitions. The works of Zhilinsky testify to the desire to rely on the traditions of the classics, primarily on the traditions of the high Renaissance, as well as ancient Russian painting. Almost from the very beginning of his creative activity, he used the technique of painting with tempera according to gesso. For the master’s paintings, the refined manner of writing, the locality of color spots, and the complex construction of space are characteristic. His paintings are finished to the finishing touch, each part of the painted surface is painted with impeccable thoroughness.

The main characters of the works of D. Zhilinsky are artists, composers, musicians, representatives of the creative intelligentsia, as well as members of his family and friends. A characteristic feature of his work is the portrait authenticity of images. He transfers quite real life situations and images of the present to a certain ideally constructed space of beauty and perfection, where man and nature act in harmonious unity. The complex unity and contrast of modern and timeless, everyday and poetic, concrete and conditional is the meaning of many works of the author. The exhibition presents sketches and drawings for the famous paintings of Zhilinsky: “Gymnasts of the USSR”, “Under the old apple tree”, “Sunday”, “Seasons”, “Portrait of N. M. Chernyshov with his wife”, “By the sea. Family ”,“ Svyatoslav Richter is playing ”and others, as well as sketches for ceremonial portraits“ Portrait of Queen Margaret II of Denmark ”,“ Portrait of Prince Consort of Denmark Henrik ”,“ Portrait of Prince of Denmark Joachim ”. Many sketches made by the artist for large paintings are not preparatory material, but have independent value of the finished work of art.

During 2004 - 2005 the master created for the international House of Music in Moscow an impressive series of portraits of Russian composers of the twentieth century: S. Rachmaninov, D. Shostakovich, I. Stravinsky, G. Sviridov, S. Prokofiev, A. Khachaturian, A. Glazunov, A. Scriabin, A. Schnittke, E. Denisova. The portraits of these great musicians are marked by psychological certainty, each of them is represented in its unique personality.

D. Zhilinsky paid much attention to pedagogical activity: from 1951 to 1973. - He taught drawing at the Moscow Art Institute. V.I. Surikov, was approved as a professor in the department of drawing. From 1973 to 1980, he taught at the Moscow Polygraphic Institute as a professor and head of the department of drawing and painting. Later he supervised the Moscow State Art Institute named after V.I. Surikova.

The works of D. Zhilinsky have long become classics of Russian art culture, the property of the largest museums in our country, foreign museum and private collections.

D. Zhilinsky always strove to express natural and eternal human feelings - joy and grief, birth and death, love and beauty, and in this he saw the meaning of his work.