Exhibition "Sergey Gonkov. Book and easel graphics"

“Where does the Motherland begin? From the picture in your primer… ", - the lines of the famous song, familiar to everyone from childhood, reflect the essence of the exhibition, which will be held this summer at the School of Watercolor, as well as possible. “A person remembers drawings from his favorite children’s books all his life, of course, if these are good drawings, not only in meaning, but also in execution,” says its author, a well-known Moscow artist, recognized master of book illustration Sergey Gonkov.

For a long creative life, Sergey G. Gonkov has illustrated more than 50 books. The images that came out from under his brush are very different in essence (among them are Cheburashka and the crocodile Gena, and the characters of Chekhov, Gogol, Turgenev, Bulgakov, and characters of Russian and foreign history), and the manner of performance. The artist, following his famous teacher B. A. Dekhtyarev, claims that "the style, depending on the task, must be new every time." And he gives an example: “Here is Bulgakov:“ A woman darted, a very slender leg, ”and that’s all, there is no more information. And Turgenev is completely different: more descriptive and detailed. Therefore, it is necessary to illustrate it completely differently than Bulgakova. ”

The creative manner of the artist is characterized by a wide range of visual possibilities and masterly possession of a variety of artistic techniques. So, the illustrations presented at the exhibition for the book by A. Vieille, “The Sword of King Afonso” are made in the technique of color autolithography, for the “Atlas of Wars and Battles” they are executed in gouache, the series “Magellan” and “Tsar Peter and Tsarevna Sophia” are written with pen, ink and watercolor, and “Tsars and Princes of Moscow” - egg tempera.

At the exhibition, in addition to numerous already published books: a collection of N.K. Chakovsky’s novels “Drivers of Frigates”, a novel by N.V. Gogol “Portrait”, and a fairy tale by S. L. Prokofieva “Treasure under an Old Oak”, one can also see unpublished ones projects. These are illustrations for the book by A. Petrenko “I, Private Guard…” and the series completed this year to the poems of L. E. Prokopenko “The Tale of the White Mice’s Journey to the South”.

“For some reason, as a child, I painted only what I could not see,” the artist admits. And now, many years later, he remained a dreamer… and a wizard, giving his viewers the joy of contact with real art.

Sergey G. Gonkov was born in Moscow in 1958. He graduated from the Moscow Art School in 1976, then continued his studies at the Moscow State Art Institute named after V.I. Surikov at the Faculty of Graphics, in the workshop of book graphics under the guidance of the outstanding master of the book B. A. Dekhterev. In 1984 he graduated from the graduate school of the Institute with a degree in Graphics and Composition. The first creative steps of the artist were associated with the publishing house "Children’s Literature". Then, after serving in the army, the artist worked on orders from the USSR Academy of Arts, collaborated with a number of domestic and foreign publishers, including Russian Word, Mechanical Engineering, AST, Montessori Korea Co. “And others. Since 1980, Sergey Grigoryevich is a regular participant in Moscow, republican, and all-union art exhibitions.

Fairly classified by contemporaries among the most creatively active masters of book graphics, S. G. Gonkov continues to work fruitfully and successfully in the field of art. The artist’s works were exhibited in the buildings of the Council of the Federation of the Russian Federation, the Moscow City Duma, the Union of Writers of Russia, the International Art Fund, the Moscow Union of Artists. He showed his works in the exhibition halls of the capital, Moscow region and a number of Russian regions. His work is presented in the collections of various museums, educational institutions and private collections, including the museum-apartment of M. Gorky (Ryabushinsky’s mansion) in Moscow, the National Museum of Heroic Defense and Liberation of Sevastopol, Smolensk Humanitarian University, the Cultural Center Museum-Theater Bulgakov House.

Sergey Gonkov’s work is marked by honorary awards of the Moscow Union of Artists, of which he is a member (Association of Graphic Artists, Moscow Prints Branch).