Artist Shishkin. Biography and works

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

Georgy Georgievich Shishkin is a contemporary Russian artist who has developed his own painting technique. Today he is recognized as an outstanding master of pastel painting. The artist's paintings were shown at personal Russian and international exhibitions held in Paris, Cannes, Nice, Monte Carlo, Luxembourg.

His skills are also in demand in the West, but by his own admission, he "always remained a Russian artist with a Russian soul, with faith and memory of the Motherland."

Hence Shishkin's voluntary mission to represent Russian art in the West. After all, only once abroad, a truly Russian person, a creator, begins to understand especially acutely that all his artistic baggage comes from those impressions that he received in his youth. Perhaps, for the painter, these were the masterpieces of Andrei Rublev, which he saw in Vladimir during his travels with a sketchbook in provincial Russia.

Next we will focus on the biography of the artist Shishkin.

Childhood

Futurethe artist was born in 1948 in the family of a musician. His father, Georgy Ivanovich Shishkin, was a musician, played the violin in the orchestra of the Musical Comedy Theater in Sverdlovsk. While fighting for Stalingrad, he was seriously wounded and died some time after the birth of his son.

The boy's ancestors were peasants from the Vyatka province, who became merchants at the beginning of the 20th century. Grandmother, Anna Efimovna, nee Kushnina, was musically and creatively gifted. As a girl, she was in the church choir, and later sang for guests, accompanying herself on the guitar.

From the age of seven, learning to play the violin, the boy drew a lot. As he himself said later: "Already in those years I knew that I would be an artist."

Ten years old Georgy Shishkin was admitted to the Art School at the Sverdlovsk Art College. Here his teacher was Nikolai Nikolaevich Moos, a famous graphic artist who illustrated children's books. Back in 1935, Kipling's fairy tale about Mowgli was decorated with his drawings. This edition is still produced today with the same wonderful illustrations.

Five years later, Georgy graduated from art school with honors, having received a recommendation to continue his education as the best student. However, the relatives, taking care of the boy's secure future, insisted that he enter the construction college.

Youth

But after studying and two years of work, Shishkin nevertheless became a student at the Sverdlovsk Institute of Architecture (now this educational institution is called the UralState Academy of Architecture and Art). From 1969 to 1975, the future artist, together with his friend Anri Kaptikov, who later became a professor, made many trips to small Russian towns, and he, being a connoisseur of Russian architecture, helped George discover the great art of Ancient Russia.

Starting from 1974, the young artist Georgy Shishkin has been a participant of combined professional exhibitions. In 1981, he exhibited his work for the first time as an independent artist.

First exhibitions

Then Shishkin was an intern at the Moscow Stroganov Higher School of Industrial Art. He worked hard and gradually gained fame. In 1985, the Union of Artists of the USSR accepted him into their ranks.

During the 1980s, Shishkin managed to take part in several dozen shows of paintings in Moscow and other cities of Russia, and in 1989 his first foreign exhibition took place in West Germany.

Four years later there was another one - this time in France. First it was Paris, two years later Versailles and Cannes. On the last of them, four canvases of the master were purchased. Experts called three works related to the series with the general name "Russian Dreams" an expression of the new Russian style.

Art expert, former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, Baron Robert Alistair MacAlpine dedicated an article published in one of the London magazines to Shishkin's work. "The artist who caught the riddle of Russia" - that's what he calledthis master.

Achievements

Georgy Georgievich Shishkin painted a series of portraits of such famous creative personalities as Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Gerard Depardieu, Inna Churikova, Elena Gogoleva, Yuri Yakovlev, Boris Shtokolov and others.

Prince of Monaco Albert II and President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi posed for Shishkin.

In the 1990-2000s, the artist created a series of paintings dedicated to the Bolshoi Theater and outstanding soloists - Chaliapin, Nureyev, Nijinsky, Lifar, as well as Diaghilev himself and his "Russian Ballet".

Georgy Georgievich participated in numerous cultural projects. In particular, while still a student at an architectural institute, he developed models of lanterns for the City Historical Square. Later he designed the interior of the local Museum of the Opera and Ballet Theatre, painted the facade of the Church of All Saints, in which he was once baptized.

Artist Shishkin is a participant in various philatelic projects (for example, "Post stamps of the Principality of Monaco", etc.). For his work in the field of philately and for his contribution to its development, he became a corresponding member of the National Academy of Philately of Russia (December 2011), and in 2013 he was awarded the Faberge medal.

Today the works of Georgy Shishkin belong to a number of museums and collections of private collectors in many countries of the world. They decorate, for example, the palace of the Prince of Monaco, a collection of paintings by Queen Elizabeth II of England, are in the collection of singer Luciano Pavarotti, LordAlistair McAlpine, Guy Haytens, Prince Nikita Lobanov-Rostovsky and many others.

Originality of works

In any description of the painting by the artist Shishkin, it will be noted more than once that these works seem translucent, and they unusually combine abstract spots and clear lines, bright strokes of impressionism and Russian spirituality of images.

Ever since the 80s, experimenting in various types of artistic techniques, the artist Shishkin prefers pastel painting. Gradually, his own original method is developed, in which the basis for pastel is prepared in such a way that the drawing does not crumble. This allows the master to create canvases of large formats.

Speaking about his approach to painting in an interview with the Parisian magazine Russian Thought, the artist noted:

I tried to form, to find my pictorial language. The ways in which I work with pastels have not yet been seen by other artists. I get a different surface that allows for layering and maintaining the transparency of pastel layers, which is usually used as a covering material. This technique allows me to write large format pastels.

Shishkin's creative method is called "instinctive" and "deeply sensitive" by art historians. These words, as a rule, accompany the description of the artist Shishkin. At the same time, a clear achievement of specific thematic goals can be traced in his method.

Creativity as a dialogue

In 1993, a painting was exhibited in the foyer of the Bolshoi TheaterShishkin, dedicated to the outstanding Russian opera singer, soloist of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theaters Fyodor Chaliapin. On the same day, the anniversary concert of his memory was held, which was attended by the descendants of Chaliapin.

According to many, the portrait painted by Shishkin came out as if it was painted by a contemporary of the singer who saw Chaliapin during his lifetime.

"Refined portrait painter" was called the master for his work with images of his contemporaries. But he also has another secret: by turning to his subconscious, the master manages to see and feel a person through memories and documentary evidence that have come down to our time.

This is how the portraits dedicated to the geniuses of Russian culture of the past were created: Chaliapin, Pushkin, Tsvetaeva, soloists of the Diaghilev Russian Ballet.

In a mental appeal to the heroes of history, the national Russian heritage, the paintings of the artist Shishkin for the famous series "Russian Dreams" were also painted. These are the canvases "Waiting", "Anna Yaroslavna", "City of Kitezh", "Evening Bells", "Geese-Swans", "Time of Troubles".