Exhibition of sculpture by Anatoly Smolenkov

The Russian Academy of Arts presents an exhibition of works by the Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, Professor Anatoly Petrovich Smolenkov. The personal exhibition, dedicated to the author’s anniversary, showcases several dozen sculptures made of marble, granite, plaster and metal.

The famous Moscow sculptor created his own original narrative and plastic language, characterized by a special integrity in the perception of the art of the past and the present. According to researchers, Anatoly Smolenkov is one of the best modern domestic masters working with marble. This noble material, to which he devoted more than thirty years of creativity, recalls antiquity and the art of the Renaissance, serves as a kind of virtual bridge between eras, connecting cultural spaces.

The sculptor likes to work in series, developing ideas in several thematically related images, which, despite different themes, are a certain continuation of each other, multiplying the intensity of the sound of the embedded meanings. In his cycles, consisting of several compositions, he presents not only a multifaceted interpretation of the chosen theme, but also creates large-scale spatial connections, literally including the viewer walking from work to work, in the context of the overall sculptural space. For example, the young Pushkin, raising his head, and the mournful, bowing Gogol, created from stacked blocks of white marble and black granite, are adjacent to relief compositions depicting the fratricidal battle of Cain and Abel. Nearby are the head of Pegasus and the torso of Athena, the faces of angels and portraits of our contemporaries.

In his work, the master presents eternal themes - life and death, betrayal and heroism, love and hatred. He is interested in the mythical hero as a reflection of modern realities. Anatoly Petrovich definitely modernizes the myth, rethinking the accents and freely interpreting plots and images from the position of a modern artist. It reveals the universalism of the ancient plot, its timeless nature, and the ability to emphasize the versatility of the image. An important source of creative inspiration for the author is also the Bible, which has rightly been called the most illustrated source of all time. Compositional solutions and plastic forms are of decisive importance for him in the aesthetic understanding of biblical subjects. Aesthetic and philosophical understanding of history, culture and traditions, translated into modern space, occurs in a special format of artistic generalization. His artistic images are not illustrations of ancient myth or biblical history, but represent a synthesis of modern artistic interpretation of eternal themes and the highest professionalism of the master.

Based on an article by Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts M. A. Burganova.

Anatoly Petrovich Smolenkov was born in 1954 in Zlatoust. In 1979 he graduated from the department of monumental and decorative sculpture of the Moscow Higher Art and Industrial School (formerly Stroganov), where he studied with Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts A. N. Burganov. Since 1978, he has participated in Moscow, All-Russian, international and foreign exhibitions. His personal exhibitions took place in Moscow (in the halls of the Russian Academy of Arts and the Moscow Museum “House of Burganov”), other cities of Russia and abroad. Over many years of work, he created more than 30 monumental works. Easel works are presented in the collection of the Moscow State Museum "House of Burganov", as well as in many other museum and private collections in Russia abroad. He is a member of the International Art Foundation, a member of the board and chairman of the sculpture section of the Creative Union of Artists of Russia. Since 2013, he has been teaching at the Moscow State Art and Industry University named after S. G. Stroganov in the department of monumental and decorative sculpture.