Biography
Few of modern Russian artists can boast such public recognition and commercial success as Alexander Shilov. The painter has a personal gallery in the very center of Moscow and dozens of years writes monumental portraits of famous contemporaries. The artist's work is criticized as far from art, but this does not affect the popularity of its work, which remain in demand for many years.Childhood and youth
Alexander Maxovich Shilov was born in Moscow in 1943. His childhood accounted for a difficult post-war time when the country was rebuilt from the ruins. Misdly accounted for the family of a future artist. The mother stopped living with his father and raised three children in the company of grandmothers. They lived in the same room in a communal apartment. At the age of 13, the boy seriously became interested in painting, going to learn at the House studio of Pioneers in Timiryazevo, where she was engaged in 5 years.
When the guy turned 15, he got a job. He worked as a laboratory and a loader, and in the evenings went to school and took the lessons of painting. In 25 years, Shilov enters the Surikovsky Art Institute, where he studies in the workshop of Y. Queen.
At first, the young man draws landscapes and genre canvas, but by the time of the end of the university in 1973 it is determined with the vector direction of creativity, which the portrait genre becomes. No wonder the graduation work was the cycle of portraits of Soviet cosmonauts.
Creation
In the first exhibitions, Shilov participates, while still a student. Then he gets the first diplomas and premiums. The artist decided to follow the canons of realism, not falling into experiments with styles and genres. In the early 1970s, the painter performs orders for writing portraits of party leaders who brought him the first portion of glory. He becomes an official portraitist to which representatives of the Soviet elite are built in the line.At the same time, in the youth of Shilov, began to write genre portraits of missile simulators who touched sentimentality and mentality. It is the works such as "blooming a Baguchik" and the "old tailor" are now stored in the exposition of the Tretyakov Gallery. In the work, Alexander Maxovich was focused on the famous predecessors, Russian masters of the past centuries - Karl Bryullov, Keesessky, Dmitry Levitsky.
Shilov does not recognize abstract painting and declares the concreteness and realistic art that should be understandable to any viewer. Its paintings are distinguished by photographic similarity, dignity of drawing, love for textures. Furniture objects, fabric patterns and settings, the artist pays no less attention than their characters.
Alexander Majsovich loves to put simulars in luxurious interiors, having fun in the lush robes. Thus, the portraitist wants to tear the perception of an object from everydayness and everyday life, creating a special solemn atmosphere.
Often the artist repay that his portraits are obtained by static and deprived of life, they are hard to catch the character and emotions of the heroes, who are more likely to go to exhibits of the exhibition of wax figures. Masters do not touch these comments, he believes that the genre of the parade portrait and should be such.
Despite the criticism of art historians, Shilova style gained wide popularity, becoming a phenomenon of a mass culture of the stroke of centuries. The artist writes so much that there is no place for storing all the works in his own workshop. In 1996, a man appeals to the State Duma, offering his heritage to the Dar of Motherland.
His appeal is a response, and in 1997, a personal Shilov Gallery in the 19th century mansion in the Znamensky alley opens near the Kremlin. In the 2000s, the space was expanded by attaching a neighboring building, and over time, the occasional territory continues to increase.
The gallery collection includes more than 1,200 paintings located in the 21st hall, and the meeting is constantly replenished, since the painter annually gives fellow citizens of about 100 new works on the city day. On the canvas depicted participants in the war, representatives of creative professions, scientists, doctors, celebrities, politicians, clergymen. Along with the parade, psychological and genre portraits are also found here.
In the gallery you can see work in other genres and techniques: graphics, landscapes, still lifes, for example, "Pansies" and "violets". It is included in the exposition and self-portrait, written in the case of assigning Alexander Shilov the title of the People's Artist of the USSR in 1985.
The man is marked by a lot of regalia and awards, among which the Order "For Merit to Fatherland" of the 3rd and 4th degrees, as well as a solid set of other orders, medals, diplomas and signs of differences. With Shilov's works, you can get acquainted in nominal album books containing photographers of the most famous pictures.
Personal life
Personal life of the artist is interested in fans no less than his work. Repeatedly individual facts of the biography of Alexander Maksovich fell under the targetful attention of journalists, with whom the former beloved Shilov were eagerly talked. Officially, the painter was married twice. The first spouse Svetlana Genyevna gave birth to him in 1974. Alexander went in the footsteps of his father and became an artist, specializing mainly on the landscapes.
With a spectacular brunette, Anna man met in 1968 and warmly invited a woman to become a fitter for paintings. She was married and experienced a difficult period, but after 6 years left the first husband and went to Shilov, becoming his wife in 1977.
In the summer of 1979, the daughter of Maria was born, which the artist loved more than his other children. However, the relationship in marriage was not cloudless. In an interview, Anna recognized that her husband had forbidden her to communicate with the daughter of Elina from the first marriage, and with anger of anger, he had traveled out of the house. In 1996, a tragedy was happening: 16-year-old Maria died from Sarcoma, and without the adhesive relationship of parents did not withstand this test.
A divorce followed, which was accompanied by property scandals and vessels, after which the former spouses stopped communicating. Even on the grave of the daughter, they only come apart. Alexander Maksovich hardly worried Masha, and this pain did not subside over the years. The painter drew portraits of the daughter as if she continues to grow and grow up.
A few years before parting with the second wife, Shilov met with a violinist Yulia Volchenko, who was invited to write genre portrait "where sounds reign". During the work between them, the novel was tied, as a result of which the daughter of Catherine was born in 1997. Julia does not hide the details of relationships from journalists and says that all the time hoped that Alexander marries her, but this did not happen.
Alexander Shilov Now
Alexander Maksovich continues to engage in creativity and oversee the work of the gallery, which is named by the house. In addition to the permanent exposition of paintings, there are musical evenings, lectures on art, charity events and creative meetings called "Stars visiting Alexander Shilova".In June 2019, the artist invited Timur Kizyakov here, along with the program "When all at home," where he told stories from life and shared his creative plans.
Paintings
- 1971 - "Old Tailor"
- 1975 - "Shepherd"
- 1980 - "Bloomn Bag Loan"
- 1982 - "Invincible"
- 1983 - "Portrait of S.F. Bondarchuk »
- 1985 - "Self-portrait"
- 1985 - "Soldier Mothers"
- 1987 - "Singe E.V. Examples "
- 1988 - "In the cell (Mother Paisius)"
- 1992 - "Spring"
- 1996 - "Where the sounds reign"