"East is East" Exhibition of works by Alexander Michri

In the halls of the Russian Academy of Arts an exhibition of works by the honored artist of Russia, academician of the Russian Academy of Arts Alexander Ilyich Michri, "East is East," opens. The exposition will comprise about 50 works of the artist, created by him over many years of fruitful work.

A.I. Michri was born in 1934 in Baku. He graduated from the Moscow Higher Art-Industrial College (now MGHPA named after Stroganov) in 1961. After graduation, Alexander Michri himself proposed to send him to practice in Central Asia, which from the first meeting won him over with hospitality, the generosity of nature and people, openness, friendliness. The East entered Alexander’s work in the early 1960s and for more than half a century has been exciting his heart and imagination.

The name of the exhibition fully reflects the theme of the works presented at it. Michri appears before the viewer as a traveling artist, fascinated by the East - on his canvases various natural and urban views of Israel, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Central Asia are captured. The artist does not deprive the attention of the local residents of the countries where he travels: in the exposition you can see portraits of people in national costumes that are distinguished by a special psychology and convey the individuality of the characters. Each portrait was painted by Michri on the basis of numerous field studies, created by him on trips. A subtle observer, he reflects in his works the customs and traditions of the peoples of the countries visited by him and conveys the characteristic atmosphere of each place.

According to researchers, earlier the artist’s work is vast and multifaceted, it incorporates the best traditions of domestic and world art. Many paintings and drawings created by Alexander Michri occupy a worthy place in Russian and foreign museum collections. The cycles of paintings and graphic works created by him in recent years, which were shown at exhibitions in many cities of Russia, Germany, Austria, Korea, China and other countries, received wide international recognition.

The artist with equal enthusiasm and professionalism works in different genres of painting, paints portraits of contemporaries, genre scenes, metaphorical paintings. However, the theme of the East, with which the independent path of the artist began, remains one of the main in his work.

For successes in his work, Michri was awarded numerous state awards, including the order “For the Serving of Art”, the Order of Peter I “For Services to the Academy” and others.

The creative biography of A.I. Michri is closely connected with social activities. A born leader and a talented organizer, he enjoys well-deserved authority in the professional environment. For many years he was elected vice president of the Creative Union of Artists of Russia. He actively participates in the work of various committees and art councils of Moscow, actively promoting the development of national fine art. It is especially important to note his merits in organizing large-scale international traveling exhibition art projects supported by members of the State Duma and the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation - “Artists of Russia to the World” (2006-2012). In the period from 2016 to 2019, under the direction of A.I. Michri, a unique project “Crimean Bridge” was carried out in which artists from Moscow, Crimea and the Kuban participated. The purpose of these exhibitions is to show the striking result of combining the creative potential of artists of the three regions as part of the coverage and creation of the artistic annals of the construction of the Crimean bridge.