Exhibition of Irina Kalinina "Earthly-heavenly"

Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts Irina Kalinina presents the author’s project “EARTH-HEAVENLY” in the Engels Art Gallery of the Radishchev Museum

In the Engels Art Gallery (Engels, Lenin Square, 36) - a branch of the Radishchev Museum, there will be a personal exhibition “EARTH-HEAVENLY” of the corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts Irina Kalinina (Moscow). The exhibition was organized at the initiative of the Radishchev Museum with the support of the Volga branch of the Russian Academy of Arts and the Ministry of Culture of the Saratov Region. The opening of the exhibition is planned for the participation of the First Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Arts, academician, Honored Artist of Russia Viktor Kalinin.

Dates of exposure: March 3 - April 19, 2020.

The exposition of the author’s project “EARTH-HEAVENLY - paintings by Irina Kalinina, created in the period from 1987 to 2020. These are landscapes, still lifes, figurative compositions. The works are united by the theme of the awakening of nature, the onset of spring, the works from the series "Calendar Cycles", "Gravity", "Tver Calendar" are presented. In total, about forty paintings.

A peculiar world of paintings by Irina Kalinina creates mutual interweaving themes of earthly gravity and heavenly weightlessness. Hence the name of the exhibition. Man’s desire to be an organic part of nature is accurately conveyed in the series "Calendar Cycles". The painter achieves the embodiment of the harmony of human life and the world around him by means of coloristic relations. “The paintings are unusually musical. Not afraid of sharp color connections, Irina Kalinina boldly plunges into the deepest worlds of her designs, giving birth to unforgettable picturesque effects, ”art critic Mikhail Krasilin defines the manner of the artist.

Irina Kalinina is a lyrical artist who knows how to see beauty in everyday life. Artistic images are gentle and always emotional. A classical art school is behind every work, a spiritual connection is felt both with the art of the Russian avant-garde of the early 20th century (Konchalovsky, Lentulov, Goncharova), and with the ancient Russian religious culture. Irina Kalinina calls her teachers in art the painter S. Fedorov, the sculptor-animal painter V. Vatagin, the painter V. Kalinin (who became his spouse).

The work of Irina Kalinina is firmly connected with folk traditions. Solar ornaments, zoomorphic motifs, protective and benevolent symbolism, ideograms of water, land, along with the accurate transmission of real forms of nature, plants, humans, animals - give the impression of an ongoing celebration. This vector of creative aspirations seems relevant in our time, which has almost lost its national bonds when the memory of the fundamental principles of being has disappeared. The study of folk art and intuitive insights awaken in the soul the memory of what should not have been lost and becomes consciously necessary.

Irina Pavlovna Kalinina was born in Moscow. In 1971 she graduated from the Moscow Higher Art and Industrial School (formerly Stroganovskoe).

Since 1972, is a permanent participant in Moscow, republican and all-union exhibitions. Member of the Moscow Union of Artists (since 1984). An experienced teacher, for more than thirty years she taught at the Children’s Art School No. 2 of the city of Moscow (1971-2003). The works of Irina Kalinina are in public and private collections in Russia, France, Belgium, and the USA. For his contribution to the development of domestic art, I. P. Kalinin was awarded the Prize to them. P. Konchalovsky, awarded the Gold and Silver medals of the Russian Academy of Arts.