Alexander Alekseev: the life and work of the artist

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

Alexander Alekseev (1901–1982) – book illustrator, graphic artist, author of animated films. Being Russian by origin, he spent almost his entire life outside the country, but his soul always remained true to his roots and homeland.

Without a doubt, Alexander's talent is able to overcome any boundaries of time and space. His innovative approach to graphics and animation was admired by his contemporaries Salvador Dali and Orson Welles. However, in the 21st century, the originality of his thinking and skill still serve as an example for gifted young people.

Childhood and youth wanderings

The first years of his life, Alexander Alekseev spent in sunny Constantinople, where his father at that time served as a military attaché. The family of little Sasha moved to St. Petersburg after the sudden disappearance of his father during a business trip to Germany. While studying in the cadet corps (1912–1917), the boy became interested in drawing.

When the revolution began, Alexander moved to Ufa to live with relatives, and two years later fled to Vladivostok. In 1920, the future artist was hired as a sailoron a ship leaving the port and left his native country. Alekseev's path to France, where he settled in 1921, was thorny and winding - through China, India, Japan, Egypt and England.

French life

In Paris, Alexander Alekseev (photo above) continued to study painting at the studio of S. Sudeikin. In 1922, he began working as a decorator in local theaters, which contributed to the development of his passion for graphics and engraving. In 1923, Alekseev married theater actress Alexandra Grinevskaya and became a father.

Starting from 1925, Alexander tries himself as a book illustrator and achieves some success. French translations of books by A. S. Pushkin, F. M. Dostoevsky, N. V. Gogol and other great writers are decorated with his creations.

Innovative experiments

Alexander Alekseev was greatly impressed by the experimental German films ("Idea" by B. Bartash and "Mechanical Ballet" by F. Leger) and decided to find his own way in cinematographic art. Together with his assistant Claire Parker, he invented a unique method of animation using the "pin screen". The surface of the screen, made of soft material, was pierced with thousands of needles, which were put forward when pressed and followed the contour of the object. Thanks to special lighting, graphic images reminiscent of line engravings were created.

In 1933, with the help of his invention, Alexander managed to shoot the rave reviews of the painting "Night on Bald Mountain" to the musical accompaniment of MP Mussorgsky. At the same time Alekseev created his own animation film studio.

The lack of stable income prompted Alexander to create commercials for commercial companies, which he did with his team for four years (from 1935 to 1939).

In 1940, together with A. Grinevskaya, he emigrated to the USA. A year later, he got a divorce and married an assistant, Claire Parker. Alexander Alekseev continued to work in the field of advertising, but did not give up his own experiments. In 1943, he created the film Passing by using a needle screen.

Fame and recognition

Alexander returned to Paris in 1946 and continued to create commercials and book illustrations. The creative genius, together with his wife, was able to invent another unusual animation technique called "totalization of illusory solids." Its essence lies in frame-by-frame shooting of a light source moving in a given direction with the help of a system of pendulums. This resulted in complex effects similar to computer graphics, even before its advent.

This technique was used to create the commercial "Smoke", which won a prize at the Venice Biennale in 1952.

Alexander's authority in the cinematographic world reached such heights that he could afford to shoot a few more films on the "needle screen", which later gained fame in many countries: "The Nose" (based on the novel by N. V. Gogol), " Three Themes”, “Pictures at an Exhibition”.

Until old ageAlexander Alekseev did not leave his work. The biography of this talented person inspired several directors to create films about him. So, in 2010, Nikita Mikhalkov released a documentary film dedicated to the life and work of the animation innovator.

Alexander is rightfully considered a major and influential cultural figure in France. In Russia, unfortunately, much less is known about him, but recently they began to learn about him, thanks to exhibitions of his work.

Alexander Alekseev is an artist and animator who was able to amazingly convey the play of light and shadow, who never ceased to amaze with his original vision of everything that exists and his constant creative search for new forms of expression.