Exhibition "Creative Workshop of Sculpture:
Experience and Search"

The Russian Academy of Arts presents the exhibition "Creative Workshop of Sculpture: Experience and Search". The project is timed to the 30th anniversary of the creation of the Creative Sculpture Workshop of the Russian Academy of Arts in Moscow.

In one exposition space, the works of recognized masters - academicians of the Russian Academy of Arts and the work of their students - trainees and graduates will be presented. On specific works, it will be possible to trace the continuity of the principles of the academic school. Viewers will see more than 100 works of easel sculpture and graphic sketches, which are an integral part of the author’s work on the concept and vision of each particular sculpture.

The exhibition project also helps to "look" at the system of academic art education (school-university-academy). The creative workshops of the Russian Academy of Arts, as a part of this system, are a unique, unparalleled phenomenon in art education. Modern workshops have more than half a century of history - this is a special page in the formation of Russian art, the value of Russian and world culture. During the reconstruction of the Academy of Arts in 1947, when the quality of art education was given special importance, the most successful graduates of the institutes were provided with the opportunity to continue their studies under the guidance of an outstanding master-academician. Creative workshops have become a true school for the largest contemporary Russian artists.

The exposition of the exhibition includes, first of all, the works of the founder and head of the Creative Workshop of Sculpture in Moscow, who for more than twenty years was the People’s Artist of the USSR, Academician Vladimir Efimovich Tsigal (1917-2013). His son and student, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, Academician and member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Arts, Alexander Vladimirovich Tsigal, who headed the workshop in 2012, took over the baton. Viewers will also see the works of renowned teachers of the Moscow State Academic Art Institute named after V.I.Surikov, academicians of the Russian Academy of Arts - M.V. Pereyaslavets (1949-2020), A.I. Rukavishnikov, V.I. Koshelev, A.V. Balashov, D. N. Tugarinov and others.

The Russian Academy of Arts strives not only to preserve, but also to develop the long-term positive experience of interaction between society and the creator, including through the preservation of such a form as a “creative workshop”. In a rather unstable social environment, when circumstances sometimes force an artist who graduated from a university to work outside his specialty, the opportunity to practice his favorite art within the walls of the Academy becomes a real salvation.

Training in a creative workshop today not only provides an invaluable opportunity for direct live communication with the master, but also sets an unlimited range of experiments for researching and introducing innovative techniques and technologies into the modern artistic and educational process. Many graduates of the Creative Sculpture Workshops in Moscow successfully pass on their experience to future generations, raising their own students. Among them, it is worth noting N. Opiok, A. Zeynalov, Z. Karamyan, I. Yavorsky, G. Garibyan, N. Komrakov, A. Pravotorov, V. Koshelev.

Artists undergoing creative practice in workshops are active participants in modern artistic life, laureates of many prizes and awards. Recently, such masters as A. Dmitriev, I. Korotchenko, E. Dubrovina, V. Mishov, A. Agbunov, P. Zhuravlev, V. Kurochkin, D. Melnikov, L. Bobokulova, V. Kirillov have made themselves known., O. Kolosova, S. Serezhin, F. Karakhanova, S. Dzidzoev and many others.

A large-scale exhibition as a meeting of masters of different generations demonstrates the interpenetration of traditions, innovations, mentality, which gives new incentives to the development of the art of sculpture. The sculpture masters of the Russian Academy of Arts create a multifaceted image of an incredibly complex modern era.

The material was prepared on the basis of an article by Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts M. Vyazhevich.