Artist Lev Zbarsky: biography. Paintings by Lev Zbarsky

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Felix-Lev Zbarsky (1931 - 2016) - graphic artist, illustrator, worked on the creation of cartoons, was very popular in his youth both as an artist and as an original person in the bohemian we althy environment of the "golden youth".

Childhood

From him there are few photographs, as well as information about his childhood. Apparently, in his environment it was not customary to recall the young, immature years. It is known that he received a double name in memory of those people whom his father, Boris Zbarsky, a prominent biochemist who took part in the embalming of V. I. Lenin, treated with respect. During the Great Patriotic War, the body of the leader in the sarcophagus was allegedly taken to Tyumen. The brain and heart of Lenin were preserved separately. Everyone was accompanied by Professor Zbarsky. Lev himself, although he apparently knew the details, never talked about these topics. It was in this city that Lev Zbarsky began to draw a little on his own. They also found a drawing teacher there for him, who gave him lessons during the entire period of the evacuation.

Study and work

Already in Moscow, after school, he graduated from the Polygraphic Institute. Lev Zbarsky became a professional graphic artist and book illustrator. They say,that he worked easily and quickly, but often redid a lot, achieving accuracy and fidelity in the transfer of his plan. And he gained fame and popularity when he designed Olesha's book in 1956. Then he was twenty-five years old.

The dove on the cover is depicted as if with one stroke of the pen. The bird, of course, is executed amazingly. Two repeating ovals - wing and body - create amazing airiness, serenity and softness. And I want to see what illustrations are in the text. But it was impossible to find them. However, the landscapes of St. Petersburg met, as if shrouded in misty darkness. Slender rows of two-three-story houses on narrow streets, straight canals with still water, bridges across them, but one thing is striking - there are no people and trees at all.

Either the city is deserted, or it is white night on the street. But really everything is dressed in stone, and you involuntarily get cold from the lifelessness of the landscape. In addition, Lev Zbarsky made illustrations for the memoirs of the French singer and actor Yves Montand "The head is full of the sun", for the plays by William Saroyan.

Appearance of the artist

For some reason, few of his photographs have survived. There is one well-known - semi-long hair, eyebrows apart, bulging eyes, a cigarette in his mouth. He was clearly fooling around and posing.

And so they say that he was tall and thin. Not athletic. The body moved loosely and freely, but with careless grace. Such was Lev Borisovich Zbarsky. In addition, he dressed expensively, in all the best,causing admiration. The clothes were from Italy, France, England - he was a stylish, artistic man who impressed both women and men. This is a true social lion.

Lev Zbarsky - artist

In 1962, the puppet cartoon "Bath" was released based on the play by Vladimir Mayakovsky. The director was Sergei Yutkevich, the music was written by Rodion Shchedrin, and the production designer was Zbarsky Lev Borisovich. The essence of the cartoon was to criticize the Soviet bureaucracy - the motherland does not need a time machine, which was invented by our modern "left-handers", and the West is begging for it from them. Everyone wants to see the chief Pobedonosikov in order to get permission from him to travel to the future. But his secretary stands guard and does not allow anyone to the body of authority.

Suddenly a woman appears from the time machine, who calls the best people in the 30s of the twenty-first century. They will meet the first cosmonaut there, and all the bureaucrats will fly into the trash. The following year, a new picture is released - the cartoon "Moskvich". This is a funny story about those who break the rules of the road. And, finally, the painting "Land of the Orchestra" (1964) is a puppet cartoon in which musical instruments come to life. The Saxophone comes to them on tour from Western countries. Everywhere his posters, posters are hung - he is a master of advertising. But Saxophone and Guitar music is bad and he will fail.

First marriage

Not being handsome, Lev Zbarsky always rotated in the secular "party" of that time. His personal life was rather chaotic. Fewthe fact that he had a huge fashion workshop in the center of Moscow on Vorovsky Street with an area of 200 square meters. m, so he spent all his free time with friends in the National cafe or in the WTO. The women took notice of him. This happened to the most beautiful fashion model of that time, Regina Nikolaevna Kolesnikova.

She was at the peak of her career. Foreign fashion designers, when Russian fashion shows abroad became possible, called her Russian Sophia Loren. Regina spoke excellent French with them. The fashion model and the artist got married. Regina Zbarskaya dreamed of a quiet family life, of children. But her husband introduced her to his circle of friends, among whom, for example, Boris Messerer, a relative of Maya Plisetskaya, took his wife to official receptions, continued to lead a cheerful, light, bohemian lifestyle, and no children and silence interested him. Regina's dream of a quiet family life never came true. At the insistence of her husband, Regina had to lose her child when she became pregnant. This would affect her mental he alth later on.

Beautiful women in the life of an artist

And then Lev Borisovich Zbarsky became interested in the beautiful actress Marianna Vertinskaya and left his wife. Marianne was amazing - red hair sparkling in the sun, blue eyes the color of the sky, a strong character that attracted, not repelled people. From the age of seventeen she acted in films. The whole country knew her and her younger sister, as well as her father and mother. They spent a whole year together. He later marries another actress Lyudmila Maksakova.

Here Regina Zbarskaya is waiting for a blow - in this marriage, the son Maxim was born. But even here a normal life did not work out. The young people first lived in the artist's studio, and when the child was born, Lyudmila Vasilyevna brought the baby to her home. The husband did not part with his beloved workshop. Lyudmila had to live in two houses. After the performances, she ran into the workshop to put everything in order, and then rushed to the child. Such a life could not continue for a long time, and Lyudmila decided to get a divorce. Meanwhile, Regina Zbarskaya was dying while taking tranquilizers.

Emigration

In 1972, having a lot in his homeland - position, circle of friends, property (a workshop, a beautiful cottage in Serebryany Bor), Lev Zbarsky, an artist whose biography was superbly developed, left the country forever and left first for Israel. As friends explain, he just got bored. The Israeli writer Ephraim Sevela gave him money to buy a huge attic space in America - a loft, and in 1978 he moved to the USA. So the artist got a modern, bright, huge workshop, equipped to his liking. Then the life of Lev Zbarsky in Manhattan becomes closed to people living in Russia. It is known that, while living in New York, he liked to visit the Russian Samovar restaurant on Fridays, the owner of which was his friend, and look through Russian newspapers in it.

Only very close friends visited him. It was Maxim Shostakovich and his son Dmitry, director Nina Sheveleva, artistCyril Doron. After the collapse of the USSR, he never came to Moscow or Leningrad. He did not date his son or grandson.

Sickness and death

Sick with lung cancer, Lev Zbarsky, whose biography in our presentation is coming to an end, dies on February 22, 2016 in New York. He lived a long life. He was 84 years old. He is buried in the giant Mount Moriah Jewish Cemetery in New Jersey. His funeral was attended by sixteen-year-old granddaughter Anna Maksakova and twenty-five-year-old grandson Pyotr Maksakov, who came to his wife Galina, the daughter of Valentin Yudashkin, who was preparing for childbirth. The grandchildren never saw their grandfather alive.

The commemoration for Lev Zbarsky took place in the "Cigar" room on the second floor of the restaurant "Russian Samovar", which he once designed. The words spoken at the wake were warm and sad. A tribute was paid to his talent.