Vladimir artists and their paintings. Will residents of Vladimir recognize the Vladimir school of painting? How to distinguish the Vladimir school from others

On December 20, in Moscow, at the Institute of Russian Realistic Art (IRRI) on Derbenevskaya embankment, a large exhibition of representatives of the Vladimir school of painting "On the Edge of Color" was opened. This is an important event in cultural life the capital of Russia and significant event in the annals of culture of the Vladimir region announced the state TV channel "Culture" and numerous sold out on Moscow streets.

The idea to present to the Moscow public the work of Vladimir painters and graphic artists in the popular museum and exhibition complex belongs to the founder of IRRI, philanthropist, entrepreneur Alexei Ananiev.

The exposition includes about 60 paintings by 25 authors, including Kim Britov, Vladimir Yukin, Valery Kokurin, Yuri Matushevsky, Nikolai Modorov, Nikolai Mokrov, Pyotr Dick, Viktor Dynnikov, Vladimir Nilov, Vladimir Sevostyanov, Boris Frantsuzov and others. The exhibition also presents Msterskaya lacquer miniature and rare photos and documents.

The paintings were collected in the State Tretyakov Gallery, in the museum and exhibition center "ROSIZO", for private collections. Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve provided 20 works for the exhibition.

The exhibition was opened by Alexey Ananiev. The ceremony was attended by members of the branch of the Union of Artists of Russia in the Vladimir region and numerous lovers of Vladimir art.

The masters of the Vladimir landscape gradually moved away from socialist realism and acquired their own unusual creative style, based on the deep traditions of art native land, in the 1950s. For the first time, they began to talk about the phenomenon of Vladimir painting after the I Republican art exhibition"Soviet Russia" in 1960, where the works of Vladimir Yukin, Kim Britov and Valery Kokurin were presented. Interest in the unusual work of young artists from the Vladimir region in cultural circles in the early 60s grew rapidly. In 1964 in Moscow, in the exhibition hall of the Union of Artists of Russia, an "Exhibition of works by artists Vladimir, Mstera, Gus-Khrustalny" was held. Vladimir villages, district towns, bazaars, old streets, fields and rivers in a bright color palette, inspired by an emotional and lyrical mood, did not leave anyone indifferent.

Many works of the masters of the Vladimir landscape were included in museum and private collections in Russia and other countries.

“The Vladimir school, like the famous Barbizon school, is inextricably linked with the place of its origin. The artists Kim Britov, Vladimir Yukin and Valery Kokurin were looking for inspiration in the nature of the Vladimir region and in its crafts - in Mstyor embroidery and lacquer miniatures, in artistic glass from Gus-Khrustalny and in Gorokhovets toys. Synthesis folk art and classical art education became the basis of the style of the Vladimir people. Their bright, distinctive landscapes evoke associations with the work of the Fauves and the Nabis group rather than with the works of their contemporaries, and their experiments with soil and color refer to similar experiments by Igor Grabar and Vincent Van Gogh.

The search for a new style was started by young artists of the post-war generation. This was part of general atmosphere that reigned in the culture of the country - the artists felt the fresh wind of change and responded to it with pure and emotional art. The time of Stalin's "big style" is over. The official and pompous canvases were replaced by landscapes and genre works of new content.

The artist Vladimir Yukin said: “It was in the air, it manifested itself not only in painting, but in literature and music. The old style, restrained coloring, varnishing of reality died out. The war is over, people have tasted a new life. It was impossible to repeat the path traveled. "

The Vladimir artists acquired an independent creative face through the knowledge of the experience of the Itinerants, through the fascination with the art of the Russian impressionists. In addition, folk and ancient Russian art influenced their formation.

Color and the Vladimir landscape are inseparable concepts. Through color, artists convey their perception of the world, for them it is the embodiment of feelings. Today, it has become completely obvious and indisputable that the artists of Vladimir made a breakthrough in color in Russian art of the 20th century, thereby significantly expanding and enriching its palette ", - tells about the vladimir school of painting site.

Bright expressive spots, broad strokes - and all this is not Matisse or Picasso, but our Vladimir school of painting, known all over the world. But do the people of Vladimir themselves know about such an unusual famous style?

What is the Vladimir School of Painting?

The Vladimir school of painting is known all over the world, best works its adherents are kept in the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum, as well as in private collections abroad. During the stagnation of the seventies, against the background of flourishing socialist realism, it was on the Vladimir land that this original artistic manner... Depicting landscapes devoid of political context, the founders of the school - Kim Britov, Vladimir Yukin and Valery Kokurin were able in these difficult times to oppose something completely original to the generally accepted style. It was a riot of bright colors, a revolution of light and the energy of emotions. For which the official press even tried to accuse them of formalism, but nothing happened.

How to distinguish the Vladimir school from others?

It is not so difficult to distinguish the Vladimir school of painting from other paintings:

• Bright, positive, rich pure colors
• Plane image, decorativeness
• Large broad strokes
• Experiments with convex ground, textured writing
• The paintings are mainly of nature, the village, churches, old streets
• Simple compositions
• The often overstated skyline

Once seen, these festive pictures, similar to patchwork bedspreads and saturated with a carnival spirit, are hard to forget. Many fans of the Vladimir school note that these pictures charge with tremendous energy and fill with endless childish joy! This is not surprising - artists in this manner were looking for a way to express emotions and moods on canvas, refracting the state of mind through the state of nature. And they relied on icon-painting and local folk traditions - Msterskoy lacquer miniature, Vladimir smooth surface and patchwork, weaving.

Will residents of Vladimir recognize the Vladimir school of painting?

We asked about 25 residents of Vladimir from different professions, not related to painting, about whether they knew about our school. Unfortunately, about half of them admitted that they do not know what it is and how this school differs from others. What do the townspeople know about Vladimir painting?

Maria Bagaeva, public figure:

I know and respect for the love of life and life itself, painted with bright colors. I like Britov, Yukin.

Irina Maksimova, Training and Development Manager:

Scientifically, I will not say that I understand art. I love Aivazovsky, Shishkin, Repin. Munch's picture "The Scream" was exciting, Pollock was madly in love. Black blots on white snow is like looking into an abyss. I love it when painting evokes real feelings. I know that there is a Vladimir school of painting, it is widely known as a direction, as well as impressionism, expressionism. Of the artists, I can name Nilov, but I'm not sure that she is from school. If I put two pictures of different schools side by side, I, alas, will not be able to distinguish them. Landscapes and country motives, churches come to mind ...

Ekaterina Sinitsyna-Solodkaya, philologist:

Vladimir Yukin, Kim Britov, Valery Kokurin - famous names... A bright, expressive palette - rich, rich colors ... Large, convex strokes. Theme - landscape, ours, Vladimir land. Such associations. And followers from contemporaries - this is the creative association "Art-Navis". A whole galaxy of young artists and artists, talented and active, is included in it. I have long wanted to visit their exhibitions, but so far I only consider Petr Petyaev on Instagram. In the spring I met some of the authors and their works at the Bibliotech in Regional library for children and youth. Very!

Anastasia Spirina, journalism student:

Of course, I know about the Vladimir school of painting. In particular, due to the fact that my relatives treat her! My grandmother's brother and wife and their daughter - my aunt - are Mstera artists.

To be honest, I can hardly distinguish landscapes, portraits and still lifes of Vladimir artists from others, but I recognize a Mster miniature from a thousand! As a child, I saw how my aunt works and tried to draw myself. Of course, nothing good came out, but the very fact - to paint with expensive brushes and paints made using a special technology - cost a lot.

Alexander, position of energy efficiency specialist:

I know about such a school, but very superficially. I like the rich color that creates sensations that resonate with the impressionists. The Armenian impressionists, for example, Saryan, have even brighter colors. I love painting, but I cannot call myself a connoisseur. Like most ordinary people, I rate work on the basis of like / dislike, touched / did not touch. But, unfortunately, I hardly know the criteria for a professional assessment.

Mikhail Gushchin, photographer, engineer:

In general, I associate the Vladimir school of painting with highly saturated colors of paints. As if in the photo editor in the picture the "saturation" slider was moved all the way. In some ways, the picture resembles a bright patchwork quilt. I don't particularly like the pictures themselves. It is difficult to explain why, but they are drawn from their provinciality. All these churches, rickety houses, etc. If I were a foreigner, then most likely I saw something exotic in them.

What all this is famous for, I do not know and I don’t remember the artists, although I’ve definitely heard some of the names.

Alexander Zakharov, vocalist, frontman of a rock band:

Since I was born and raised in Suzdal, it is no wonder that I often came into contact with the Vladimir Art School at various exhibitions and events. Suzdal is a city-museum, and there are plenty of galleries in it. I would like to mention right away about Suzdal that we have a lot of talented artists, I was especially impressed by the work of Alexander Erashov, with whom we have a mutual friend (Dima, hello to you). When I learned about the Vladimir direction artistic skill I was surprised how easy these pictures are to read, they are simple and, at the same time, very rich. If we talk about painting, having seen a picture, it is always clear that it was created by Vladimir's hand. As there is an Ivanovo, Kostroma, St. Petersburg accent in speech, so the Vladimir masters have their own accent, a kind of uniqueness.

Expert opinion

As it turned out, the Vladimir painting school for tourists is a visiting card of the city, and the townspeople themselves are almost unknown. You can also notice confusion in the answers of our speakers, doubts about the difference between the school and others, and superficial knowledge. Our expert helps to understand why this happened.

Maria Malinina, methodologist at the Center for the Promotion of Fine Arts:

The Vladimir school of painting is a recognizable phenomenon, the people of Vladimir love it, and those who are in the subject can immediately name the founding fathers of this school and distinguish this style of painting. Some visitors to our museum have a great interest in this school, and some, on the contrary, do not understand it at all, since distinctive feature of this manner - decorativeness, flat image, deliberately bright colors. The guests of the city have a significant interest, since the Vladimir school is very distinctive and original, and is known far beyond the borders of Vladimir.

Unfortunately, our institutes do not pay attention to this area, since more emphasis is placed on world art... Now of the masters, only Valery Grigorievich Kokurin survived, Kim Nikolaevich Britov died in 2010, Yukin Vladimir Yakovlevich died in 2000. Among the young artists are now followers of this school - Sergei Kremnev, Dmitry Kholin and others.

New studios, courses and private painting schools are opening in the city, but everyone seems to have forgotten about such a magnificent know-how of our artists. Local museums do not like leisure, and as a result, they do not know that we have our own Matisses right under our noses. Maybe it's high time for us all ... to the museum?

Kokurin Valery Grigorievich (born 1930, Vladimir).

Valery Kokurin is one of the founders of the unique Vladimir school of painting. It arose at the turn of the 1950s - 60s and opposed the official art of those years. The canvases of the artists were distinguished by bright decorativeness, sonorous color, thick, rich brushstroke. In commissioned articles, Kokurin was called an "abstractionist", "cosmopolitan", "impressionist". There were cases when curators filmed his work on the eve of the exhibition. But, in spite of all the vicissitudes of life, the artist did not change his palette, preserving his originality. His canvases attracted to themselves by an unexpected, not accepted in those years manner of painting, deep poetry, open polyphony of colors. The themes of his works are the unique nature of the Vladimir region, villages and small towns with their old streets and colorful bazaars, monuments of Old Russian architecture - everything that is filled with the quiet life of the province with its powerful layer folk culture.

The artist's works radiate the joy of being, they are extremely sincere and spontaneous. V. Kokurin is an inborn colorist, the colors on his canvases are emphatically bright, the festive color scale is based on combinations of contrasting, clean, sonorous colors. In ancient cathedrals and churches, constantly appearing in his landscapes, Kokurin sees enduring beauty, which naturally and harmoniously blended into the natural landscape.

The artist's paintings are in the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the Murom Museum of History and Art, in the Vladimir History and Art Museum-Reserve, as well as in private collections in many countries of the world.

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Vladimir landscape painting is a trend that firmly established itself in art in the 1970s and is now included in the treasury of the true achievements of the Russian national school. For the first time, the artists of this region made themselves known after the First Republican Exhibition "Soviet Russia" held in Moscow in 1960, when three artists - Kim Britov, Vladimir Yukin and Valery Kokurin - showed their works, the result of creative searches and experiments.
In his works, K. Britov furiously studied the techniques of textured writing, looking for a special luminous color that conveys the mood. V. Yukin strove to express feelings through the state of nature, V. Kokurin was interested in the light-air environment, which changes the color and outlines of objects. Commonality aesthetic views, unity artistic style and the creative method, while maintaining the individuality of manners, made it possible to talk about the formation new school in the domestic landscape painting... Artists K. Britov, V. Yukin and V. Kokurin became its founders.

Vladimir artists relied on the deep traditions of the art of their land. An icon, Msterskaya lacquer miniature, a homespun rug, a patchwork quilt, a Vladimir surface glowing with cinnabar - these are the origins of the color palette on which their aesthetic system was built. It is based on a fusion of folk culture, coming from the depths of centuries, and the peaks of the Russian landscape, which by the beginning of the 20th century took a worthy place in the European artistic process.

The themes of the paintings are Vladimir villages, small district towns, bazaars, old streets, discreet fields and copses - everything that is full of a quiet provincial life, behind which is hidden a mighty layer of folk culture that has retained its bright originality and nourishes modernity with an uncluttered source of eternal beauty.
Against the background of the traditional Russian Soviet landscape of the 1960s, which was distinguished mainly by monochrome colors, the painting style of the Vladimir people - A. Lukin, Y. Matushevsky, N. Mokrov, A. Smirnov, V. Templin, their desire to depict the discreet motives of the nature of central Russia in an open color in the early 1960s seemed a challenge, fell out of the established stereotype and did not fit into the official aesthetic canon at all.

The masters of the Vladimir landscape did not immediately acquire their unusual creative style. At the beginning, in the mid-1950s, they worked in a traditional style. socialist realism... The coloring of the paintings was built on similar colors and followed the laws of the landscape school of the 19th century. The soft, pearly, white and silver gamut of painting helped to create a lyrical mood in the works, reflect the state of light sadness, awakened by the quiet melody of the Central Russian landscape. The pure landscape, free of ideology, in the genre of which the people of Vladimir worked, was most consonant with the inner protest of artists against the official schemes Soviet painting those years.

Many art critics have dedicated their works to Vladimir artists. Art critic Platon Pavlov wrote: “The search for color brightness demanded that artists solve some specific painting and decorative tasks. The work with "open" tones is primarily reflected in the pictorial rendering of space. In these cases, a simple weakening of color saturation by dithering or whitening of tones in the background can disrupt the necessary uniformity of the color solution.
Therefore, in the paintings of Vladimir residents, the backgrounds are often no less intense in color than the foregrounds, but the quality of the color background with which they are painted is such that the viewer does not lose the impression of space. Artists achieve this through particularly accurate selection and combination of color tones. Such a pictorial system entails the need to build a composition in a special way.
It is no coincidence that the main knot of the Vladimir artists, the center of the composition - a building or a tree - is often the most intense in color. But especially important role color rhythm plays in their canvases. Artists are not afraid to repeat spots of the same tone, unfolding them on the canvas. The most characteristic technique of Vladimir landscape painters is the use of a high horizon and a high point of view.
This technique enhances the decorative effect. The sky in the canvases usually occupies the most modest place: it either peeps out somewhere between the houses, or is depicted as a narrow strip under the upper bar of the frames. Sometimes it is not there at all. But the earth resembles a flowery carpet. Trees, houses, streets are sometimes arranged in tiers. As for the technique, that painting, often pasty, differs among the Vladimir artists with an energetic, broad brushstroke. "

By the 1970s, the recognizable style of painting, common to all representatives of the Vladimir school, was finally formed. Their landscape space, as a rule, is reduced to a plane. The plans are close, the composition is extremely simple, the horizon line in the paintings is deliberately overestimated. This set of techniques gives grounds to speak of the closeness of their aesthetics with the stylistic principles of Rostov-Suzdal icon painting ... Writing in Vladimir painting is temperamental, the texture is particularly prominent. A completely unique find of the people of Vladimir is the use of experimental volumetric primers that enhance the decorative effect of textured writing. Bright, pasty painting on textured ground, different heights of the colorful relief in the picture increased the vibrant trepidation of the depicted, enhanced the contrast of the color range.

The long-term fruitful development of the Vladimir school of painting contributed to the emergence of such talented and original masters as S. Bakhvalov, A. Kuvin, V. Kuvin, N. Kurnikov, E. Redko, V. Sevostyanov, V. Fedyanov, A. Kharchenko, helped to reveal talents young painters - V. Fomyuk and D. Kholin. A. Kuvin's work amazes with both a large selection of topics and a wide range artistic techniques... So the canvas "Time of Haymaking", made in the 70s of the last century in a realistic manner, conveys the joy of the unity of people in joint work. The painting "Spring" plunges the viewer into a world of silence. “Street in the Village” and “Spring Evening” draw the viewer to an impressionistic vision of the world. From the painting "Sailing" breathes with serenity and happiness. Close to her in mood, decided in the same colors work "On the river".

Y. Matushevsky is presented at the exhibition with paintings of the sixties of the twentieth century traditional for the Vladimir school of painting: "Cathedral", "On the Trubezh River", in which the architectural motive becomes a symbol of nationality. The works of N. Kournikov of the sixties - eighties of the twentieth century are represented by the monumental canvas "View of the Intercession Monastery" and the original landscape-moods "Kovrov motive" and "Windy day".

The aesthetics of color is the main thing that distinguishes the Vladimir artists from the landscape painters of other schools. It is color that is the leading means of expression in the winter landscape of G. Kachalov "Sunday Morning", in his painting with self-explanatory name"Lilac sun", in the works of S. Bakhvalov "Blue Snow", V. Khamkov "Winter Landscape" and V. Bobrov "The Last Ray", allowing you to create a major, optimistic mood.

Though characteristic feature Vladimir school of landscape has always remained the continuity of traditions, there has always been a place for searches. The manner of E. Telegin speaks volumes about this. The painter proved himself to be a subtle lyricist: using muted, refined silver-pearl tones, he showed new ones, he created an image of the nature of the Vladimir land - elegiacally enlightened, refined - in the works "May Rains" and "May Time".

V. Bataev in his paintings "Spring in Vladimir", "Autumn in Vladimir", "Breath of Spring" is the successor of the realistic traditions of the second half of the XIX century. Involuntarily come to mind "Moscow courtyard" by V. Polenov, "The Rooks Have Arrived" by V. Savrasov.

In the works of the young artist D. Kholin Kustodiev motives sound. Such are his vivid works "Palm Sunday", "Temples of Great Ustyug" with azure radiance of the sky and burning gold crosses on the domes of the temples. The cheerfulness and gaiety of Russian fairs and holidays are present in his canvases "Palm Sunday", "The game of" three hundred ", distinguished by deliberate primitivism and popular naivety of composition. D. Kholin's talent is revealed in a completely different way in the southern landscapes of “Sochi. South Pearl ". "On the top. Krasnaya Polyana in Sochi "," Abkhazia. Lake Ritsa ”, painted with a wide, juicy brushstroke. These paintings seem to emit streams of color energy.

V last years Vladimir artists expand their genre range, becoming more and more carried away by still life. A number of these works include a major still life of the young master V. Fomyuk "Summer Table" - a painting that conveys the feeling of summer abundance and happiness of life, pouring over the edge of a full bowl.

The variety of individual manners of Vladimir artists, the genre breadth inherent in them in recent years, erodes the established channel of that single style in which the founders of the Vladimir school of landscape continue to work today. But in these changes, perhaps, there are good prerequisites for further artistic searches, new ways of development. Today best works painters of the Vladimir school, its leading masters, are kept in the central art collections of Russia - the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum, as well as in a number of other domestic and foreign museums and private collections.

Based on materials from the magazine "Russian Art"

Vladimir Yukin - famous Vladimir artist

The Vladimir region is also famous for its artists. Their paintings can be seen not only at regional, republican and all-Union exhibitions, but also at many foreign exhibitions. The landscapes of our masters are especially popular. And this is probably not accidental. Ancient land Vladimirskaya is rich in artistic traditions. The wonderful art of Andrei Rublev and the wonderful skill of the Suzdal icon painters flourished here. Here an extraordinary artistic craft of Mstera arose, Gusev crystal played with its edges. Glorious traditions have been adopted and multiplied by Vladimir artists.

In 1972, there were 54 people in the ranks of the Vladimir organization of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR. These are painters, graphic artists, sculptors and applied artists. One of the leading Vladimir artists is rightfully considered famous master landscape Vladimir Yakovlevich Yukin. He was born and spent his childhood in the fabulous Mstera. One of his first teachers was the talented Soviet artist Modorov. Also a native of Mstera, he often came to his native places, visited young artists. He noticed the talent of Volodya Yukin, helped him from the first steps of creativity. And then Yukin studied at the Lviv Art Institute. The war prevented him from graduating from this educational institution. Only after the war did Vladimir Yakovlevich return to Mstera. He began teaching at a local art school, created an evening painting studio. He devoted all his leisure time to art. His first works appeared at exhibitions: "Spill of Msterka", "Last Snow". "Birches", "Tatarovo Village". In 1949, six works by Yukin were exhibited at the regional exhibition: "Partisan", "Spring Day", "Autumn", "Spill on the Klyazma" and others.

Soon Yukin moved to Vladimir. Here his skills are growing and improving. Together with another Vladimir artist KN Britov, they are looking for new means of artistic expression, strive for vivid imagery, for the ultimate laconicism of writing. Subsequently to their creative pursuits the young artist V.G. Kokurin joins.

The Vladimir landscape, which is decorative at its core, comes, perhaps, from folk art, from the icon painting skill of ancient Vladimir craftsmen. Painters strive to artistically sharpen the endless color richness of the world. Moreover, the colors are not just copied from nature. The artist chooses a range that allows not only to convey an instantaneous state of nature, but also to most vividly convey the artist's worldview, his perception of reality.

Major tones of landscapes make them life-affirming, optimistic. Artists kind of invite viewers to a bright sunny holiday. Take a closer look at the bright blue of the skies, the delicate green of the forest, the pearly whiteness of the snow, the sunspots on houses and buses ... Take a closer look. You have never seen them so beautiful.

Here, for example, are the works of V. Yukin presented at recent exhibitions. At the all-Union exhibition dedicated to the centenary of the birth of V. I. Lenin, the works "Old Town" and "Waiting for the Bus" were demonstrated. "Autumn Song" is the name of one of the paintings presented at the 1971 regional exhibition. Winter motives are especially poetic in V. Yukin's work. Here is "Winter Day". Winter has painted a small village in coldish, but not dead shades. The invigorating Russian frost is felt in transparent, light colors. And here is "They are carrying hay." A soft landscape, with delicate green hay on a sleigh, with laced purple veins in the snow. Yes, Yukin's snow takes on the most unexpected shades. This is the snow about which one of the Vladimir poets wrote:

Snow is red, yellow, and blue.
It contains all the tones and shades of Russia.

In many respects, KN ​​Britov is similar to Yukin in his creative style. The same dominance of colors, the same catchiness of the stroke. True, later in the canvases of Britov, their own characteristics began to appear. From the light lyricism of bright, contrasting landscapes, from admiring the native expanses, he seems to pass on to meditation. His last landscapes, especially with architectural motives, take on an epic sound. Such are the paintings "Winter in Zagorsk", "Rostov the Great", "Ancient Vladimir".

... Canvas "Winter in Zagorsk". Against the background of the snow, slightly gleaming with gold of the dawn, crimson towers and ancient temples rise. The eyes of the numerous windows reflect the blue of the sky. The winter sun plays on the bodies of buses ... The range of light colors is not striking, does not irritate the eye with excessive brightness. Executed with restraint, with a great sense of proportion, this canvas creates an enlightened, calm, joyful, sublime mood. The artist seems to be talking about the greatness of Russia, its modest simplicity, its endless vastness and power. All this makes the landscape not just a sketch, not just a sketch of the state of nature, but a true picture.

Many interesting, colorful landscapes glorifying the beauty of their native places were created by artists V. Kokurin, V. Egorov, N. Modorov and others.

The genre theme is less developed in the works of Vladimir artists. Only individual artists work on genre canvases. For many years the artist N. Sheryshev has been embodying the Leninist theme on his canvases. His creative searches brought some success. At one of the last exhibitions, the attention of the audience was attracted by the work “Lenin. May". The painting is executed in a single pinkish scale, in pastel colors ... Lenin against the background of Red Square during the May Day celebrations. His figure reflects the conviviality reigning around.

The work "Lenin in exile" by M. Semenov is interesting. Lenin is depicted in a semi-dark hut near a burning stove. Reflections of fire fall on his face, figure, giving it a solemnly disturbing expression. Lenin is shown on the eve of the struggle, the coming battles.

Other genre painters include I. Markov, A. Kuvin, Yu. Lo-bachev.

There are many in the field and charts. Readers of Pravda are well aware of the name of V. Volkov, whose sharp, topical political caricatures often appear on the pages of the newspaper. Many graphic works were created by artists V. Skvortsov, N. Baranov and others.

Sculpture at exhibitions of works by Vladimir artists is usually represented by the works of V. Savrasov. His work is characterized by the fact that he creates sculptural portraits of noble people of the region, strives to express the multifaceted character of the Soviet man.

It is richly presented at exhibitions applied arts... Here, as a rule, the works of the craftsmen Mstera and Gus-Khrustalny prevail.

A significant detachment of the Vladimir organization of artists is made up of the famous craftsmen Mstera, masters of lacquer miniatures. Their wonderful products, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow, are exhibited at many international exhibitions... They decorate museums, apartments of Soviet people. These are mainly the most varied varnished painted caskets. They depict various subjects reflecting our Soviet life, the history of our great homeland... Many works of Mstera miniaturists are original illustrations for Russian folk tales.

Mstera's art is rooted in the distant past. Also in early XVIII century the icon-painting craft developed here. In their work, icon painters continued the glorious traditions of Andrei Rublev, the Suzdal school of painting. They created icons, which depicted not the lenient faces of the saints, but living people with their sorrows, sufferings, joys. The picturesque palette of many icon painters was colorful, festive, life-affirming.

However, real recognition came to Mstera craftsmen only during the years of Soviet power. Here an artistic craft arose, which soon became known to the whole world. Such prominent miniaturists as Klykov, Kotyagin, Bryagin, Morozov are rightfully considered the founders of lacquer miniatures. They took all the best from icon painting, from the picturesque folklore, have enriched the glorious traditions with their own vision of the world. Gradually, the Mstera school arose, distinguished by the depth of content, the brightness of the form, a certain conventionality of painting, fabulous hyperbolicity, and a tendency to plane depiction.

Many talented artists lived in Mstera. Among them are the Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR E.V. Yurin, laureates of the State Prize. I. E. Repina N. A. Shishakov and L. A. Fomichev, artists E. A. Krylov, N. I. Vavanov and many others.