Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin, sculptor: biography, creativity, awards

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

Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin is a great Russian sculptor and sculptor, the author of many grandiose majestic monuments. For his significant titanic works, he was awarded many orders, medals and prizes.

Who was he - Mikhail Anikushin, whose biography intrigues everyone who has ever looked at his brilliant creations?

Let's open the veil not only of his life, creative activity and creative searches.

Childhood of the future master

Anikushin is a talented and scrupulous sculptor. The future honorary citizen of St. Petersburg was born at the turn of two revolutions - in the autumn of 1917, in Moscow, in the family of a retired military man working as a parquet floorer.

The large family did not live well, as the parents were simple workers. Therefore, little Misha faced need and hardship from childhood.

It was a difficult time, a time of poverty and instability, a bloodthirsty fratricidal war and formidable political transformations.

Did Mikhail Konstantinovich realize that he was born in a difficult epochal time? Hardly.

Parents did everything possible to make their children feel protected and protected amid the storms of life and political hardships. Little Misha spent the first years of his life in the village, where nothing overshadowed his growing up.

Endless steppes and open spaces, picturesque horizons, good-natured working fellow villagers, outlandish domestic animals - all this was new, interesting and entertaining for a curious child.

Awakening Talent

As he grew older, the boy delved into what was happening more, he liked to observe the world around him, to do something with his own hands. He wanted to portray everything he saw - he sculpted animals and people, carved, planed and sawed out.

The talent of the sculptor woke up in Mikhail quite early, so the parents, noticing the clumsy and awkward figures of their son, decided to purposefully develop his abilities and talents.

As a teenager, the boy is sent to the capital's sculptural studio at the House of Pioneers, where he studied monumental fine art.

G. A. Kozlov is the first teacher of Anikushin. It deepens his knowledge of modeling techniques, introduces him to the traditions of nineteenth-century realist sculptors, and helps him improve applied artistic skills and abilities.

After graduating from school, Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin is going to enter a prestigious sculptor's university and is going to Leningrad.

But there is an unpleasant situation going on.

Admission to the Academy of Arts

It turns out that the documents that the young man sent to the Academy of Arts were lostroad. They categorically did not want to allow a young unfamiliar boy to take exams. And then a mentor from Moscow came to the rescue. He sent an urgent telegram to the leadership of the university with a request to enroll the young man, briefly telling about his phenomenal talent and extraordinary skill.

If it were not for Kozlov's intercession, perhaps Mikhail would not have entered the university, and then Anikushin the sculptor would not have taken place at the very beginning. The world would not see his great grandiose creations, and Russian art would become much poorer.

So, a young Muscovite is enrolled in preparatory courses at the Academy. Two years later, Mikhail becomes a full student of the university, enrolling in the first year of the sculpture department.

Training

What did you learn at Anikushin Academy? The sculptor Matveev, one of Mikhail's teachers, a well-known and skilled sculptor, taught the gifted student to deeply analyze and creatively convey nature. And although Matveev insisted on a plastic generalization and artistic abstraction of the image, the young Anikushin developed his own individual style, not like the mentor's. He harmoniously combines in his sculptures the bright plastic image of the work and the material clarity of the outside world.

Studying at the academy, Anikushin creates his first notable works - this is a series of figurines of children, such as "Pioneer with a wreath" and "Girl with a goat", as well as a number of small sculptures of workers in production, inspired by visits to manufacturing plants and factories of the country.

The Great Patriotic War

However, the gifted novice master failed to immediately start creative activity. The Great Patriotic War began. Anikushin volunteers to go to the front, where he serves in the anti-tank troops.

Impressions and feelings that the young soldier experienced at the front were reflected in his further sculptural work. Knowing the war from the inside, not from books and eyewitness accounts, but from personal actions and reflections, Mikhail Konstantinovich was able to reflect in his works the unprecedented strength and courage of the liberators.

After the Great Victory, Anikushin creates a series of sculptures dedicated to military themes (both public monuments and individual portraits), in which, concisely and simply, without unnecessary details and expressions, he conveys the inner strength and energy of the depicted objects.

For example, his immortal memorial to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad, dedicated to the valiant feat of Leningraders during the tragic time of the siege.

It is not for nothing that the monument depicts not only soldiers and officers, but also civilians - workers, women and children who covered and protected the rear of the Soviet military with their lives.

Sculptures of writers

Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin is a versatile and original sculptor. In his work, he was not limited to a single chosen theme, did not imitate anyone or copy someone else's style.

Anikushin loved to create in different genres and directions, developing his own,unsurpassed and expressive handwriting.

All his life he enjoyed working on sculptures of writers. Literature and its figures have always excited the imagination of the sculptor. He saw writers not only romantic and dreamy, not only enthusiastic and restless, but also strong in spirit, strong in body, having a deep inner core.

This is how Pushkin and Chekhov appear before us, immortalized by the strong confident hand of the master.

Anikushin designed and created a whole cycle of Pushkin's sculptures. These were monuments, and busts, and statues.

The sculptor approached each creation individually, thinking deeply not only about how to convey the peculiar character of the poet, but also about how the monumental work would fit into its surroundings – landscapes, city buildings, highways.

Thirty years of work

Among the majestic and deep works of Anikushin, it is worth highlighting the monument to Chekhov, installed in the capital of the Russian Federation.

Mikhail Konstantinovich thought for a long time about how to convey the unsurpassed talent and spiritual potential of his favorite writer in a unique and original way.

Anikushin decided to create a double monument, depicting two figures - the writer and his friend Levitan. The sculptor has always been drawn to the attitudes of these great gifted men, the intellectuals of the nineteenth century.

However, the sketch of the monument did not pass the competition, and for some time Mikhail Konstantinovich postponed work onhim.

Only thirty years later, he presented the public with a new, remade sculpture.

The monument to Chekhov impressed with its originality and originality. This was not the Chekhov that the inhabitants of the capital are used to seeing: in pince-nez, with a cane and a beard.

Under the skillful fingers of Anikushin, Anton Pavlovich appeared as an elusive and at the same time brilliant personality, harmoniously combining nobility and talent, tragedy and dashing prowess.

Socio-political sculptures

Among other works of Anikushin, it is necessary to mention his sculpture, donated by the Soviet Union to the Japanese sister city of Nagasaki. The composition "Peace" represents two girls holding hands. They swirl as if in a dance, symbolizing joy, peace and unity.

The sculpture is simple and unpretentious, but it clearly reflects the sculptor's idea of sincere fellowship between different peoples.

Other socio-political statues of Mikhail Konstantinovich were monuments to the leader of the proletariat, so common in the Soviet era.

And although such sculptures were erected already stereotyped and in passing, Anikushin introduced his individual vision and personal view into the statue of the leader.

The monument to Lenin on Moscow Square contains all the depth and expressiveness of the personality of Vladimir Ilyich, his will, energy and steadfastness. It is interesting that the sculpture did not freeze in the standard pose familiar to us. Against,Lenin is depicted in motion and in action, which indicates his active nature and the influence that he had on the history of all of Russia.

It is noteworthy that the figure looks different from different sides. This speaks of the sculptor's rare and exceptional style, capable of conveying simple things brightly and in many ways.

Recognition

For his important work and significant contribution to the cultural life of his native city, Anikushin received the well-deserved title of “Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg”, as well as many awards, prizes and public titles. A school, a square and even a planet are named after him.

The great sculptor died in the spring of 1997.