Artist of the week: Igor Shelkovskiy

In Mumm exhibition "Constancy of Change" - Russia's largest retrospective of the artist and sculptor Igor Shelkovsky

Shishkin draws all these branches , needles ,
and I express the same nature ,
but more abstract means ,
nenaturalisticheskimi .

I. S. Shelkovskiy

In Mumm exhibition " Constancy of Change" - Russia's largest retrospective of the artist and sculptor Ihor Shelkovskoi .

Perhaps his name much to the general public and not say , but the artist , this deserves attention , if only because he was one of the first Russian authors whose work had bought for his collection of contemporary art museum of France , the world famous Centre Pompidou . In addition, with the name Igor Shelkovsky firmly connected with the history of modern Russian recognition ( and Soviet ) art as an international phenomenon : living in exile in France , from 1979 to 1986 published a magazine unofficial Russian art " A - Z " - a veritable encyclopedia , catalog - raisonné , if you want all the most important phenomena in the domestic informal art .

DIANA Vouba Igor Shelkovskiy . 2012
Source : vouba.ru

Shelkovskiy Igor was born on December 20, 1937 in the family of journalist , chief editor of " Orenburg commune" Sergei Kolesnichenko . You would think that a boy from an educated family , grew up surrounded by the humanities (his mother had teacher education , but the profession did not work - mainly engaged in home and social activities ) , was destined to direct road to the world of art. However, two months before the birth of the future artist his father was arrested as Shelkovskiy remembers , for "attempting to restore capitalism in Russia ", " organization Trotskyist groups" and soon after his arrest , was shot . Mother , as expected, reported about " 10 years of incommunicado " and , as a family member , " enemy of the people ", sent her newborn son in jail near Orenburg , and later, when the child's grandmother took to Moscow - was transferred to one of the camps of Mordovia , where she spent the entire period of 8 years .

employee Igor was in the pre-war Moscow. He and my grandmother allocated a room in a communal apartment in the city center , the Old Square , in a building where the administration is now president of the Russian Federation , ie housing lucky ( do not know how to amenities but with the location exactly) . Shelkovskiy recalled : « My grandmother all the time we enjoyed walking along the embankment of the Moscow River , around the Kremlin . I remember I saw an artist , he wrote a sketch of St. Basil's ... Maybe the first encounter with the painting was ... » A few years later , still doshkolenkom , he has already performed its first " scenic order »: « Somewhere 1943rd or maybe the beginning of 1944 . I was six , we lived in a communal apartment . We had a neighbor , an old Bolshevik , surnamed Rudnev , who asked me to draw her to the wall tear-off calendar . I drew a house on the hill , windows glow in the night sky the moon , under the mountain well with crane ».

interest in creativity, visual arts with going to school only grew and ten years or eleven Shelkovskiy began to walk in a circle drawing TSDDZH ( Central House of children of railway ) , where he studied drawing and watercolor pencil, and also received the first skills oil. His interest in painting and encouraged school art teacher Ananias Ivanovich deaf, with whom he once even went to the sketches in Kolomenskoye .

Thus, to high school before the question of the future profession Shelkovskiy perhaps never was . In 1954 he enrolled in the theater department of the Moscow Regional Art School in memory of 1905 ( MGAHI memory of 1905 ), where at one time I studied with him D. Plavinsky , D. Krasnopevtsev , B. Sveshnikov , Anatoly T. A. Zverev and other Plavinsky , a graduate of the theater department of the school in 1956 , recalled : " Managed department VA Shestakov , in the past - the main theater artist Meyerhold . Another teacher - Leonid Fedorov - accustomed me the secrets of the art of painting. Composition , of course , I have a wonderful teacher OA Avsiyanu ... »

In 1957 , at the VI World Festival of Youth and Students in training school where students were involved along with their teachers and fellow students Shelkovskiy first saw modern art in Europe and America . Obviously, this knowledge has largely been the turning point for a generation of young artists and encouraged them to create what today we call informal, other art, contemporary Russian art of the sixties and seventies .

In 1959 Shelkovskiy received a distribution in Orenburg, a city where he was born and which has been written in a letter received a few days before his departure from Moscow , did not want to accept it . So Shelkovskiy remained in Moscow . In the next few years he changed several jobs and even professions worked in publishing , then did the scenery in Tula TYuZe , led circle drawing in Moscow Neskuchny garden . In 1962, he finally managed to get a more or less permanent job - restorer of frescoes and icons of Veliky Novgorod and Moscow Kremlin : « We shot some terraces on the outskirts and in the evening draw. So four years I worked as a restorer . " Finally he settled in Moscow in seredine1960 's .

in 1965 Shelkovskiy first exhibited his works in Moscow cafe "Blue Bird" .

artistic life in Moscow at the time was very interesting , even violent - far worked sixties . In 1966, in Gdansk and Poznan ( Poland ) hosted the exhibition " 16 Moscow Artists " , which brought together the cream of Soviet Nonconformist Art , including Brusilovsky , Vechtomova , Grobman , Kabakov Ilya I. , Nemukhin , Plavinsky , , Kropivnickogo , Sooster , Yankylevsky , etc. in November 1966, the Moscow Institute of hygiene and Occupational Diseases , Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR was an exhibition of works of ten artists : Grobman , Zverev Anatoly T. , and all Kropiwnicki etc. Shelkovskiy in these shows was not involved , but he obviously had close those looking for a new in art , which led nonconformists . He moved in their circle, was friends with some , was a frequent guest at gatherings in the workshops and participated in many exhibitions, various creative departures : « Natasha Yablonsky , secretary of the youth section in MOSH ... organized races in house creative artists in Pereslavl . Collected all sorts of interesting formalists . In one race I was with Kosolapov Sasha , Northwind Orlov , Lenya Sokov , Dima Prigov , Ivan Chuikov ».

Long work with icons and mural painting , yes yet almost at the beginning of professional life , taught the Shelkovskiy not think strokes or perspective , and volumes. Even in its most traditional realistic still lifes he often lays composition on separate planes , local color , being so , at the junction with expressionism .

I. Shelkovskiy C. Untitled . 1973 Wood paint. 46 × 62 Christie's. 04.06.2013 . Lot 417 Estimate: 3 000-5 000 pounds Source : artinvestment.ru

I. Shelkovskiy C. package milk. 1975 Wood , paint Source : cultobzor.ru

With the change of the environment began to change , and figurative language artist. Starting to communicate with non-conformists , he accepts and adopts their aesthetics , departs from figurativa . His work has become conventional. Planar division gets its literal incarnation - as he tries to go beyond the existing pictorial tradition. Indeed, at that time it was thought that the painting is almost impossible to develop that within it is difficult if not impossible to do something new. A sculpture of its features have not become obsolete . And in 1971 Shelkovskiy started working with wood .

In the same year in the artist's life , there was another significant event : he had his own workshop - in Moscow, Prosvirin Lane, left him inherited a theater artist Tamara Eliava . This workshop and become a laboratory in which Shelkovskiy invent your own handwriting , recycling and trying to set is in the air styles and ideas . So , in his works first half of 1970 can be found playing with elements of Suprematism , pop art (the famous triangular milk package), conceptualism . He works with simple geometric volumes , ranking them from abstract compositions .

In 1969, the Central House of Art held his first solo exhibition .

in the spring of 1976 Shelkovskiy participated in an exhibition in the studio , where he met with Bulatov , Kabakov Ilya I. and other Moscow conceptualists .

in the same year Shelkovskiy emigrated to Paris . With the departure of Tolstoy Foundation helped him (Tolstoy Foundation) - Charitable Foundation , founded in the U.S. in 1939, the youngest daughter of Leo Tolstoy , Alexander for assistance to refugees, displaced persons , orphans , as well as to fund various educational programs. That Fund was supporting the artist in the first months of life abroad - as housing and money , paying him 10 francs a day . With the assistance of the Shelkovskiy Fund , brought with him from Moscow , came to the exhibition at the Centre Pompidou , one of the paintings was located right across the work of Picasso . After the exhibition, the museum decided to buy one of the Shelkovskiy works - an honor he was awarded one of the first Russian contemporary artists .

After 8 months of life in France at the Shelkovskiy appeared and his workshop - « concrete floors , white walls , no furniture », - where he worked for more than 30 years .

« at the end of the 76th . Came an artist and businessman Alexander Melkonian , called me at the restaurant . And he said : "I saw the artists , we discussed why not start a journal for this round . I'll fund it. Whoever in Paris could do it? " I figured - and suggested," Let me try . '" This is so simple and mundane , Shelkovskiy describes the beginning of the magazine " A - Z ". Within a few years he became not only the inspirer and editor of the publication ( in conjunction with the publisher Alexander Sidorov , collected the materials for him in Moscow ), but also mastered the layout , layout and various types of printing. The first issue of " A - Z " was released in 1979. The magazine has become an unprecedented phenomenon in modern Russian artistic life : to sixty pages with color illustrations , texts Boris Groys , Vladimir Paperny and other major theorists of nonconformity concentrated all the best of what the world could offer modern Russian ( Soviet ) art, a real guide and encyclopedia " who is who "in it .

I. Shelkovskiy C. Abstract figure . 1978 tree . 39 × 25 Macdougall's. 08.06.2011 . Lot 357 Estimate: 1 000-1 500 pounds Result: 2680 pounds Source : macdougallauction.com

I. S. Shelkovskiy / A. Alekseev ( Sidorov ) Cover 1st issue of " A - Z ". 1979 Source : ru.wikipedia.org

in the period from 1979 to 1986 in Paris and New York was released 8 rooms " A - Z " circulation of about 3000 copies each . The magazine was not advertising, all the money in his publication came from individuals who are not indifferent to the unofficial Russian art ( one of them was the famous French gallery owner Dina Verni ) . From the pages of " A - Z " the world learned the names Erik Bulatov , Ilya Kabakov , Oleg Oleg Vasiliev , Ivan Chuikov , Igor Makarevich , Francisco Infante Francisco , Komar and Melamid , Prigova , Zvezdochetova Constantine and many other world famous artists today .

C magazine bound even a historical anecdote narrated by Shelkovskiy in an interview : « Germany Boris Groys introduces me to some businessman and chairman of the bank collector. Introduced and walked , and talk about something wrong. Businessman asks what I do , I say : " I am an artist ," and he makes such a long face , "Well, you do not have to " A - Z " ." Even if the story is somewhat exaggerated , it can be seen from how much weight was the appearance of the artist's name on the pages of the magazine .

I. Shelkovskiy C. Dialogue with Suprematism . 1983 board , colored blocks. 64,5 × 45 Macdougall's. 13.06.2008. Lot 338 Estimate: 4 000-6 000 pounds Result: 5738 pounds Source : artinvestment.ru

I. Shelkovskiy C. Landscape. 1990 canvas board oil. 90 × 75 Sotheby's. 30.11.2006 . Lot 174 Estimate: 4 500-6 500 pounds Result: 5280 pounds Source : artinvestment.ru

After 1985 there were more than 20 personal exhibitions , mainly abroad. In 1987, work was shown in the Shelkovskiy Moscow landmark exhibition " Retrospective of Moscow Artists 1957-1974 . Painting "in l /o " Hermitage " Profsoyuznaya street , and in 1991 - the exhibition " Other Art " at the Tretyakov Gallery .

In 2004, together with Alexandra Shelkovskiy Obukhova adopted participation in the reprint reprint all eight issues of the magazine .

as Igor Shelkovsky own creativity , in the last few decades it takes mostly abstract sculpture - and round, and reliefs . He repeatedly solves the problem of the interaction volume and the plane has been forming shapes. However, some abstract volumes artist does not limit himself : his interests extend to the color ( for example , in " Flags "), and even the text , which he puts into his work under the title " Sayings ».

I. Shelkovskiy C. Landscape. 2004 Oil on canvas. 40 × 30 Source : art9.ru

I. Shelkovskiy C. flag . 2006 Oil on canvas. 35 × 24 Source : art9.ru

Despite its originality and versatility , painter and sculptor Shelkovskiy not as well known as Shelkovskiy - publisher . The current exhibition of his works in the Mumm , according to some experts, was the opening of the Shelkovskiy sculptor even for sophisticated Russian collectors .

on auction sites far from its results " hammers " more famous contemporaries like Kabakov Ilya I. or, for example , Chuikova . At the auction of his work has been exhibited little more than a couple dozen times , and buy from them basically things in the early 2000s - for example, a series of abstract designs protourbanisticheskih " Architectural color mass ».

I. Shelkovskiy C. Bouquet . 1991 Paper, acrylic . 65 × 50 Source : art9.ru

I. Shelkovskiy C. From the " Sayings ". 2001 Wood , paint 's collection Source : mamm-mdf.ru ​​

Most major auction transaction works with the Shelkovskiy committed in London in 2006-2011 . Record - 5738 pounds of 13 June 2008 on the auction house for relief Macdougall's "Dialogue with Suprematism " (1983) . Second place goes to the picturesque "Landscape" in 1990 , sold for 5,280 pounds at auction at Sotheby's November 30, 2006 . The third result is due to a small ( 39 × 25) wooden " abstract shapes " 1978 : 2680 lbs Macdougall's June 28, 2006 .

In general, to February 9, 2014 at all interested ( and interested ) have the opportunity to make our own judgments about the artist and to reflect on its commercial potential in the halls of the Multimedia Art Museum . Photo exhibition looking at forum AI .

Maria Kuznetsova , AI

Sources : art9 . ru ; artinvestment.ru ; artinfo.ru ; open-gallery.ru ; interviewrussia.ru ; kommersant.ru ; oralhistory.ru ; mamm-mdf.ru ​​;« Other Art " Moscow . 1956-1988 . Moscow, 2005 ; mgahu1905.ru