Pushkin's image in the fine arts: portraits and sculptures

The name of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin became a landmark for Russian culture. Sincere admiration for his personality and creativity is alive and multiplied in time. Thanks to the talented creations of famous sculptors and artists, the younger generation respectfully contemplates the images of the famous poet.

Pushkin's image in the fine arts: portraits

Many people note the originality of the image of the poet. Pushkin's image in the visual arts is an inexhaustible subject for study: one and the same poet appears before us in different angles, seen by masters during different periods of the life of this genius. And thanks to their work, we have a unique opportunity to get acquainted with the new Pushkin every time.

In the courtyard of the XXI century, and in Pushkin's places there are no stops: people with interest visit Pushkin's evenings and exhibitions. The next exhibition event held in the Pushkin Mountains is a vivid proof of this. The Moscow State Pushkin Museum in cooperation with the Mikhailovsky State Museum-Reserve contributed to perpetuating the image of the poet in the visual arts and included this valuable exposition, consisting of 130 sculptural and graphic compositions, into a global project that reveals the image of Pushkin in the visual arts . The project is called "Portraits of Pushkin".

The project "Portraits of Pushkin"

The exhibition itself is unique: its visitors could not help but feel their presence at once in two centuries: Pushkin's images, made by masters-contemporaries of the poet, and works created after his passing from life, met here. There are copies of Pushkin's famous portraits of unknown masters (for example, "Ostafievsky copy"), confirming their true popularity at all times.

Kiprensky, Ge, Tropinin, Aivazovsky, Serov, Repin, Fomin, Petrov-Vodkin, Yuon, Laktionov, Ossovsky, Antokolsky ... The list of names of illustrious portrait painters turning to the genius of the poetic syllable can be continued. Their works are valuable in that there is not even a remotely similar vision of this outstanding personality, as can be traced the desire of the masters to "live" this image in their own way, as if to say: "This is MY Pushkin". The emphasized features of the image of Pushkin in the fine arts - portraits and sculptures - reveal to the contemplators and features of the lived epochs. And this connection of times is remarkable in its essence. The idea that Pushkin is a strong link connecting generations from different centuries, allows us to be proud of our cultural roots.

The Pushkin silhouettes, ever born in the hands of talented sculptors: Anikushin, Bach, Terebenev, Balashova and others, do not cease to be admired. Clearly grasped facial features (and their slightest possible change), the poet's poses and gestures, even the folds in his clothes, all create the feeling that the real Pushkin will now extend his hand to you and will speak heart to heart through the centuries ...

Attempt to portray Pushkin in the 21st century

To advertising agents-creators of the city of Alma-Ata, there seems to be only one such conversation with the classic, they went further (or rather, went too far) in the idea of familiarizing the Kazakhs with the Pushkin theme. All their countrymen, and now all regulars on the Internet, "remember a wonderful moment" when a huge poster of shocking content for the advertisement of the entertainment club appeared at the crossroads of Pushkin and Kurmangazy streets: the Russian poet and the Kazakh composer merged into a strong kiss ... The reaction of the intelligentsia to It turned out to be contradictory: the skeptics are indignant and condemn the authors for attempting to encroach on the sacred, the optimists see an unsuccessful but significant step towards uniting the cultures of two peoples, and even different kinds of arts.
What is it: the lack of a proper level of intelligence, a daring challenge to classical traditions, or just a genius-non-standard attitude? .. The content of the created poster is, of course, a low sample, but it again demonstrates the indifference to Pushkin's theme (note, not even on Russian soil)! It remains to be believed that a multinational (sometimes superficial) knowledge of everything Pushkin will still learn to live harmoniously with deep respect for both the personality and the poetic heritage of the Russian classic.

"Pushkin lived! Pushkin is alive! Pushkin will live! "

In general, the manifestation of the above-described cultural "explosions" becomes regular and periodic: an attempt to "dump Pushkin and his associates from the ship of modernity" at the beginning of the 20th century was already undertaken by futurists. Why not pokreativnichat and early twenty-first? Everyone who feels in himself the "germ" of the creator has the right to a sonorous word! It's only time for everyone to decide which of the "tortured masterpieces" is a true work of art, and which turned out to be accidental in creative history. And this is true: all futuristic and advertising-creative attacks on the unique Pushkin heritage are doomed to failure. So you want to shout out against them an objection in their own spirit: "Pushkin lived! Pushkin is alive! Pushkin will live! "

Pushkin's image in the fine arts: children's drawings

It's no accident that the children see a bright hope for a happy future, which they boldly and genuinely paint on white sheets of paper. The results of the annual city, regional, all-Russian and international children's art contests on Pushkin themes inspire hope for the preservation of cultural traditions in subsequent generations.

Children's portrait drawings based on Pushkin's works of art are real revelations. While depicting on paper a favorite piece of a poem, a fairy tale or a portrait of a poet, the child as if admits: "That's what he is, my Pushkin, so I see him, and I'm glad that he has me!"

The pictures of children are surprised by the rich color palette and design, and sometimes even by the choice of the book, which sometimes happens to be not at all the age of the young artist. Deserves special respect, for example, the work of a fifth grader, based on the "Queen of Spades" or "Boris Godunov," in which the serious attitude to reality, deep respect for poetry, and a thoughtful reading of the "adult" work are already discernible.

Hundreds of children reading the same books of Pushkin every day, create hundreds of non-recurring drawings on the fragments they have experienced. Pushkin's source of creative ideas is inexhaustible: there will be plenty for both children and grandchildren of children. By the exhibitions of children's drawings, you can wander for hours and read without words the understandable Pushkin episodes: here is a stupid priest in an absurd attempt to deceive the cunning Baldu worker, here is the Saltanovo kingdom with its fascinating history, but the three girls under the window with their dreams ...

Children's creative work contests

Children of different nationalities from hundreds of cities and villages send thousands of creative works made with pencil and watercolor, felt-tip pens and gouache to the competitions. They with interest embody their ideas in reality and independently, and with the help of parents or teachers, grandmothers or grandfathers, sisters or brothers. Fond of Pushkin's motives continue to bring people of different ages closer together in a creative impulse.

The image imprinted in the monuments

Today it is difficult to imagine any civilized city in which the image of Pushkin in the fine arts is not immortalized: portraits, sculptures, everything says that the great poet is not forgotten. In honor of the genius named streets, parks, museums, libraries and even shopping centers!

Throughout Russia scattered sculptural images of Pushkin, numbering in the hundreds, and each sculptor in his own way recreated the image of Pushkin. In the fine arts the sculptures of the famous poet are numerous and popular. It is worth visiting in Tsarskoe Selo, where the visitor will be met at once by three sculptures of Pushkin, symbolizing different stages of the life and work of the poet. It was here that the best years of youth and creative maturation of the future light of Russian poetry rushed. Bronze and granite had the high honor of perpetuating the living features of Pushkin.

Sculptures of foreign masters

Not always such images of the Russian poet belong to Russian sculptors. So, the famous statue of Pushkin, once acquired by Emperor Nicholas II, is of French origin: it was performed by the master L. Bernshtam. Subsequently, the statue adorned the vestibule of the Tsarskoe Selo Lyceum and is associated with the appearance of the city's name - Pushkin. After the Great Patriotic War, this monument was subject to a deep restoration: it eliminated about 142 potholes from fascist shots on a bronze target.

What does the great writer associate with the Russian people?

The image of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin in the fine arts in peacetime is caused only by bright Russian emotions. And how not to feel involved in the Russian intelligentsia, sitting in the park in the company of the romantic, boundlessly loving life of Alexander Sergeevich! He, as if unwilling to leave for a long time, meets us near schools and museums, in city parks, in central squares, near museums and libraries.

Sculptors like to portray Pushkin in a thoughtful but unconstrained pose, with a pen and a notebook in his hands, sitting on a bench with a dreamy friendly look. Watching the creative impulse, imprinted in bronze or stone, you believe that right now, right here, from under the pen of genius, another unreadable masterpiece will appear.

Is it possible after that not to admire the boundless possibilities of true, classical, fine art!