Duality Automatic translate

The Russian Academy of Arts presents an exhibition of works by academicians of the Russian Academy of Arts Evgeny Nikolaevich Maksimov and Yulia Aleksandrovna Smirnova “Duality”, dedicated to the anniversaries of the authors and continuing a series of academic projects demonstrating the art of creative dynasties. Twelve exhibition halls will display sketches and preparatory drawings for monumental works, embroideries for church utensils, frescoes and icons, photographs of completed temple paintings, as well as picturesque portraits, landscapes, still lifes and genre compositions - more than 100 exhibits in total.

The project not only provides an intriguing chance to compare the different artistic styles of dissimilar authors. The viewer will be presented with a number of moments important for the history of the formation of the Moscow monumental school and painting in general. In the creative destinies of Evgeny Nikolaevich Maksimov and Yulia Aleksandrovna Smirnova, classical academic education played an important role - MGAHI named after. V.I. Surikov and the school, now the lyceum with him. And no matter how much artists in their work resort to various methods of conditional transformation of the objective world, the strongest foundation of the image, coming from living perception, multiplied by deep analysis, always determines the character and structure of the work.

The work of these famous masters constitutes a significant chapter in the history of Russian art. Having become the successor of the outstanding artist-teacher Claudia Aleksandrovna Tutevol, Evgeny Maksimov formed an incredibly diverse team of teachers in the monumental painting workshop of the Surikov Institute. Over the decades of leading this workshop, as well as the Creative Workshops of Monumental Painting of the Russian Academy of Arts in Moscow, he not only trained hundreds of professionals, but also created some spiritual and intellectual space in which a system of organically interconnected concepts and values ​​has formed and is developing. The art of his students is always smart, interesting, multi-valued and at the same time attractive.

The creativity of Maksimov and Smirnova reveals to the viewer a rich palette of artistic means. It inherits medieval contemplation, the desire to achieve harmonious coherence, while maintaining the intelligibility of sonorous color relationships, decorativeness, not opposed to figurativeness, and scale, stemming from the integrity of the composition and each of its elements. Working a lot in icon painting and church monumental art, Evgeniy Nikolaevich deeply comprehended the great principle, naturally significant for religious themes, but which is essential for any art: the big is seen in the small, the general in the specific. Obviously, this is why the images he created have inner strength and expressiveness, both in the style of the close virtuosity of the mature Middle Ages, and in the classicizing academic tradition, and in the jewelry elaboration of objectivity in the spirit of parsuna of the 17th - early 18th centuries. And the same fundamental seriousness in image creation allows the artist to achieve depth and harmony in the “light” genre of landscape, when the rhythm of roofs, trunks and branches, dissolving in the air-filled space of a river valley in his native Kashira or other places, tells a non-vain story about the harmony and meaningfulness of the universe.

Despite all the external differences, the work of Yulia Smirnova talks about the same thing. The eye and hand of a master, trained in solving large-scale problems in such colossal buildings as the Bolshoi Theater and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, the Patriarchal St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York (the paintings were carried out under the direction of E. N. Maksimov) are precise in the embodiment of the idea in a wide range: from sharp writing and drawing of details to the textured expressiveness of the stroke. Saturated color gives the works a decorative quality, but it is not generated by coloristic arbitrariness, not by the desire for “self-sufficient” catchiness, but comes from the meaning of the compositions and from the living feeling of the author. Whether it is an objective world, a landscape motif, an image of a person or a multi-figure composition, it is always, first of all, a portrait of what is depicted, it is a story about the object and the artist who captured its essence. The well-known convention of spatial constructions in this version is not only a familiar method for the monumentalist to interpret the visible world, but the embodiment of internal situations for both the object and the subject, subject to the laws of large relationships.

The title of the exhibition “Duality” not only captures the duet of two artists, but also leads to an understanding of the dialogical nature of their art, implying the activity of the viewer, called to work on co-creation, on joint comprehension and living the versatility of existence. Preserving the principles of the academic school as the basis, Evgeniy Maksimov and Yulia Smirnova strive to update and develop existing rich traditions in accordance with the requirements of the fast-flowing time. The works presented at the exhibition will demonstrate the continuous development of the chosen line in art, although each author is deeply individual in his work.  

The text is based on an article by V. E. Kalashnikov.

Evgeny Nikolaevich Maksimov was born in the city of Kashira, Moscow region in 1953. Graduated from the workshop of monumental art at the Moscow State Art Institute. V.I. Surikov in 1973, then an assistant internship with K.A. Tutevol. He worked in the monumental workshop of the Art Works Combine of the Moscow Regional Art Fund of the RSFSR from 1975 to 1977. Since 1982 he has been teaching at the Moscow State Academic Art Institute. V. I. Surikov at the Russian Academy of Arts. Since 1990, he has directed a monumental workshop; in 2000, he took the position of head of the Department of Painting and Composition at the Institute. Since 1997, he has headed the department of monumental painting of the Faculty of Church Arts at the Orthodox St. Tikhon’s Academy for the Humanities. Since 2001 - head of the Creative Workshop of Monumental Painting of the Russian Academy of Arts in Moscow. In 2005 he was awarded the title of People’s Artist of the Russian Federation. Under his leadership, the vaults of the main dome and small domes, the interiors of the Lower Church, the halls of church cathedrals and the vaults of the Edicule of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow were decorated; Cathedral of St. Nicholas in New York. He worked on creating sketches for the paintings of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Kaliningrad, the Holy Trinity Metochion in Brussels (Belgium), the interior decoration of the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in the Novoglutvinsky Monastery (Kolomna), the Temple of Modest of Jerusalem in the Monastery of Simon Peter on Mount Athos (Greece) and other monumental projects.

Yulia Aleksandrovna Smirnova was born in 1973, received a classical art education at the Moscow State Academy of Arts. V. I. Surikova. Then she continued her studies at the Creative Workshop of Monumental Painting of the Russian Academy of Arts under the direction of E. N. Maksimov. As part of creative teams, she worked on paintings of the Holy Vvedenskaya Optina Hermitage, the main vault of the main dome and the Hall of Church Councils of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, paintings of the ceiling of the new auditorium of the Bolshoi Theater, paintings of the Patriarchal St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York, paintings of the House Church of the Patriarch Alexy in Peredelkino, the Cathedral of St. Savva the Serbian on Vracar and many other monumental projects. Most of the works were completed by the artist under the guidance of her teacher and husband E. N. Maksimov. At various times, Yu. A. Smirnova taught at the Academy of Watercolor and Fine Arts of Sergei Andriyaka, the Russian State University of Arts and Industry named after S. G. Stroganov, and the Institute of Theatre, Film and Television. Since 2019 - Associate Professor of the Department of Painting and Composition, since 2020 - Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Painting of the Moscow State Academy of Arts named after V. I. Surikov at the Russian Academy of Arts.