Exhibition project "School of the artist. Creative workshops of the Russian Academy of Arts"

On December 17, 2019 at 17.00 in the Museum and Exhibition Complex of the Russian Academy of Arts Zurab Tsereteli Gallery of Art (Moscow, Prechistenka 19), the first large-scale exposition of the long-term exhibition project “School of the Artist. Creative workshops of the Russian Academy of Arts. ” The project is designed to present a modern academic school - a system of training masters of fine art, aimed at preserving professional art education and the integrity of the complex of its stages: school-university-academy.

The exposition will consist of more than 200 works by about 80 authors: managers, trainees and graduates of creative workshops in Moscow - the largest and very young Russian artists. These are works of all types and genres of fine art - easel and monumental painting, a series of graphic works and printed graphics (etching, lithography, silk-screen printing), book illustration, various types of sculptural works, theatrical and decorative art and architectural projects.

Creative workshops of the Russian Academy of Arts is 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. When reconstructing the Academy of Arts in the post-war years, when the quality of art education was given special importance, the most successful graduates of institutes that passed competitive selection were given the opportunity to continue their studies under the guidance of an outstanding master academician. Creative workshops - the highest level of training, a kind of graduate school at the Russian Academy of Arts, have become a genuine school for the largest contemporary Russian artists. Currently, there are academic creative workshops in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk.

Live communication with the master-academician gives not only the opportunity to transfer the accumulated experience, but also represents a limitless range of experiment in the study and implementation of new ideas and technical solutions into creative practice.

Academic workshops were created in 1947 by Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 2782 “On the Transformation of the All-Russian Academy of Arts into the Academy of Arts of the USSR”. Along with workshops in the structure of the Academy were included: Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. I.E. Repin in Leningrad with a secondary art school, Moscow State Art Institute, as well as graduate school in various types of fine art, a library and a museum. Subsequently, the secondary art school in Moscow was included in the Academy.

Thus, a system of art education was created, in which academics oversaw future artists from school age until the graduation from creative workshops of highly professional specialists in various creative fields.

Despite the post-war devastation, the leadership of the country understood the need to form a single center that coordinates and studies the development of fine art. Particular importance was attached to art education and upbringing. The unique experience of vocational training and the formation of a creative personality, as well as the training of master performers in the field of molding and point enlargement of sculpture, mosaic art, technology of art, paintings, sculptural and graphic materials, was preserved.

Today, the Russian Academy of Arts seeks not only to preserve, but also to develop many years of experience in the interaction of society and the creator, including through such a form of artistic practice as the “creative workshop”. The result of the artist’s stay in the creative workshop is reporting work in the form of a painting, a sculptural composition or a graphic series containing a new artistic image, as the younger generation looks at the world in a new way.

The centuries-old academic culture, which the young author “absorbs” during his studies at the art school and university, gives the depth of the internal content of the images that he creates. And it doesn’t matter - the author makes a figurative composition or abstraction. An artistic image is a language a form of thinking. Works of art influence the formation of aesthetic and ethical standards, set the parameters for the self-identification of society and reflect new trends in the world. This is the social function of both a separate workshop and the Academy as a whole.

The exhibition project “Artist’s School” confirms the feasibility of maintaining the Academy’s holistic system of art education “school-university-academy”, as well as the need to recreate in full the structure of training masters of creative and performing specialties: molding and molding sculptures, production of smalt, the creation of large-format mosaics, mural art and a number of other art professions.

The project presents the following workshops in Moscow:

Creative workshop of painting, heads of academicians of the Russian Academy of Arts, people’s artists of the USSR Alexei Petrovich and Sergey Petrovich Tkachev.

Creative workshop of graphics, head academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation Alexei Dementievich Shmarinov.

Creative workshop of monumental painting, head academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation Evgeny Nikolayevich Maksimov.

Theater and creative workshop, head academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation Boris Asafovich Messerer.

Creative workshop of sculpture, head academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation Alexander Tsigal.

Creative workshop of architecture, head academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, honored architect of the Russian Federation Valery Nikolaevich Rzhevsky.

The exhibition demonstrates the works of the last few years by the “Teachers” of academicians and “Pupils” of artists - trainees - authors who have already taken place, many of whom teach at universities, lyceums, and studios, thereby continuing the traditions of professional art education. Among them are teachers of the Moscow State Art Institute named after V. I. Surikova P. Blokhin, E. Voronova, K. Voronova, D. Lushnikov, I. Detkova, E. Pogorelov, etching master and teacher M. Smolyaninova and others. An integral part of modern art life was the work of sculptors A. Dmitriev, I. Korotchenko, monumental artists K. Sopova, K. Stekolshchikova and many other young authors.

The exposition impresses with a wide range and freedom of creative search, once again proving that a true academic school does not constrain, but liberates, the artist’s capabilities, making them truly limitless. Historical painting and genre compositions, series of portraits of contemporaries, landscapes and still lifes, fresco paintings, mosaics, sculptural portraits and figurative compositions, animalistics, series of printed graphics, scenography and costume designs, architectural projects for the Far North and for the cities of the South of Russia. This is not a complete list of art forms presented at the exhibition.

Acquaintance with this exposition will certainly be interesting both to a wide circle of lovers of fine art and specialists, as it provides an opportunity to look into the mysterious processes of the birth of a great master.

The text is based on material
Head creative workshops of the Russian Academy of Arts
A. A. Troshina