"Second wind". Theater and film artists off-stage and screen

February 2, 2016 at 16.00 in the halls of the Museum and Exhibition Complex of the Russian Academy of Arts Zurab Tsereteli Gallery of Art (Prechistenka, 19) will open the second exhibition of works by members of the Department of Theater and Cinema and Decorative Arts of the Russian Academy of Arts.

Two years ago, in the same halls, the artists of the Department presented sketches of sets, costumes and mock-ups for theater and film performances, that is, they demonstrated achievements in the main field of their professional activity.

At the exhibition “Second Wind”, theater and cinema masters appear in front of the audience in a different guise as painters and graphic artists. This second, very important area of their work, accompanied the main professional occupations of most authors from the first steps of the artistic path. Almost all of them received a good academic school, including in the field of painting and graphics. V. Leventhal and S. Alimov studied at VGIK with Yu. Pimenov and B. Yakovlev, S. Benediktov with T. Selvinskaya, E. Kochergin with N. Akimov, M. Fedorov with V. Favorskaya. An excellent drawing school was held at the Moscow Architectural Institute B. Messerer and S. Barkhin.

Among the ten exhibitors, one is no longer with us; last June Valery Yakovlevich Levental passed away. He was the most striking adherent of the picturesque scenery and a wonderful easel painter, although he almost did not put his easel works to the audience. In many ways, his works will be a discovery even for fans of this outstanding master. The exhibition will include portraits, landscapes, still lifes, interiors of the 70s - 80s, as well as canvases brought by her daughter, created by him in recent years abroad.

Easel painting and large-scale, created in the author’s technique, B. Messerer etchings have been repeatedly exhibited at his personal exhibitions and have always been admired by the clearly verified constructiveness, sophistication of an avaricious color scheme. He continues to improve his canvases for years, so often at each next show they can be seen in a new way. Two picturesque still lifes with bottles and kerosene lamps were created by the artist last year.

Towards the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s, a picturesque series by S. Barkhin “Earth” belongs. The unique, even exotic technique of performance on large boards using lands collected in different parts of the world - Figueres, Zurich, Syracuse, Madrid, Moscow, Vorkuta - coupled with some attractive paradoxical thinking of the author create a fascinating intrigue.

S. Alimov, who is no less famous as an illustrator than as a set designer and animator, first addressed the theme of “Dead Souls” by N. Gogol in 1971 in a book. At the current exhibition, one can see a series of sheets using the silk-screen printing technique for Dead Souls, created in 2013 for the Vita Nova publishing house, which is familiar to us with its unique art and printing publications. The previous searches of the author in Gogol’s themes are supplemented in this series by new aspects and plots; it looks like the result of many years of creative work.

For E. Kochergin, on the contrary, the works exhibited at the exhibition are the first experience in book illustration. Today, E. Kochergin is not only an artist, but also a famous writer, whose books have been translated into almost all European languages. It was to his latest book, “Zaviruhi Shishova Lane,” released in 2015, that he made illustrations full of lively convincing imagination and good humor.

Poetic lyricism and strict harmony, inherent in one of the masters of theatrical scenery S. Benediktov, are especially clearly manifested in his easel paintings and graphic works. He gratefully and thoughtfully peers into the uncomplicated manifestations of his everyday life, giving the artlessness of modest landscapes and still lifes the significance of the high joy of life.

The patriarch of film-decorating art A.T. Borisov is a painter of enchanting gentle intonation. His still lifes, and above all the flowers, melt in the space of the canvas, beckoning and attracting with a subtle coloristic nuance. In portraits he is more monumental and defined. And small sketches, drawings and sketches from nature, collected in several common frames, can serve as a highly professional instructional guide for young artists.

Ustinov, professionally working in both theater and cinema, both in his theatrical sketches and in already exhibited easel paintings, often resorted to sophisticated, though beautiful, even spectacular, saturated with philosophical ideas forms. Presented at the exhibition is a series of Crimean landscapes created by the artist in the last three years, is natural and straightforward. With the seemingly monotonous plots, they create an expressive picture of an entrancing, absorbing rest that is close to the artist in the spirit of the world.

The easel works of the outstanding Russian couturier and the author of theatrical costumes for the numerous performances of V. Zaitsev are diverse in nature. The earlier of them, made with mascara and oil pastel, sometimes sharply provocative, testifying to the artist’s extraordinary inner world, are already familiar to our eye from previous shows. The next series of plot works and still lifes in the technique of photo printing, which he previously called "photo painting," looks somewhat secondary. In 2015, using the same photo printing technique using computer technology, he turned to ornamental photo compositions. Its ornaments are distinguished by fantasy complexity, constructive and coloristic harmony, impeccable taste.

The famous costume designer M. Fedorova, in his color graphic works, reinterprets folk motifs in a modern way. Her major, complex in color scheme fairy-tale cats, lions, griffins, syrins, balagans dancers and musicians, while remaining faithful to folk tradition, are depicted taking into account the latest trends in plastic art.

The installation “What the artist was born from” created by M. Fedorova in collaboration with N. Lavrishcheva includes historical rarities, archival materials, and graphic works by the dynasty of artists Fedorov-Osipov, V. Favorskaya, dating from the late 19th and early 21st centuries.

The organizers of the exhibition did not set themselves the task of revealing the connection between the easel art of the Department’s artists and their decorative art, which is already obvious. The exhibition is designed to demonstrate their high artistic potential in conditions of freedom from the stage and dramatic frames. The breadth and self-sufficiency of the work of theater and cinema artists outside the stage and screen.