Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin, sculptor: biography, creativity, awards

Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin is a great Russian sculptor and sculptor, the author of many grandiose majestic monuments. For his considerable 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 genius creations?

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

Childhood of the future master

Anikushin - the sculptor is talented and scrupulous. The future honorable citizen of St. Petersburg was born on the verge of two revolutions - in the autumn of 1917, in Moscow, in a family of a retired military man who worked as a parquet.

The large family lived poorly, as the parents were simple workers. Therefore, with need and deprivation, little Misha encountered 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 epoch-making time? Hardly.

Parents did everything possible to make children feel protected and protected from life storms and political adversity. The first years of his life little Misha spent in the village, where nothing overshadowed his growing up.

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

Awakening Talent

As he grew up, the boy more into what was happening, he loved to observe the world around him, to do something with his own hands. He wanted to depict everything he saw, sculpted animals and people, carved, cut out and sawed.

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

Teen boy is given to the metropolitan sculptural studio at the House of Pioneers, where he was trained in monumental fine arts.

Kozlov GA - the first teacher of Anikushin. He deepens his knowledge of the technique of modeling, acquaints with the traditions of 19th-century sculptors-realists, helps to improve applied artistic skills and abilities.

After graduation, Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin is going to enter the prestigious sculpture school and goes to Leningrad.

But there is an unpleasant situation.

Admission to the Academy of Arts

It turns out that the documents that the young man sent to the Academy of Arts were lost on the way. The young unfamiliar boy was categorically reluctant to admit to examinations. And then came to the aid of a mentor from Moscow. He sent an urgent telegram to the leadership of the university asking 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-sculptor would not have taken place at the very beginning. The world would not have seen his great grandiose creations, and Russian art would have become much poorer.

So, the young Muscovite is enrolled in the preparatory courses at the Academy. Two years later, Mikhail became a full-fledged student at the university, enrolling in the first course of the sculptural department.

Training

What did he learn in the Academy of Anikushin? Sculptor Matveyev - one of the teachers of Mikhail, a well-known and master sculptor, - taught the gifted student to deeply analyze and creatively convey nature. And although Matveyev insisted on plastic generalization and artistic abstraction of the image, the young Anikushin developed his own individual handwriting, not like the handwriting of a mentor. He harmoniously combines in his sculptures the bright plastic image of the work and the material clarity of the external world.

Studying at the academy, Anikushin creates his first notable works - this is a series of children's figures, such as "Pioneer with a wreath" and "Girl with a kid", as well as a number of small sculptures of workers in the factory, inspired by a visit to the country's factories and factories.

The Great Patriotic War

However, immediately to begin the creative activity of the gifted beginner master failed. The Great Patriotic War began. Anikushin volunteer goes to the front, where he serves in anti-tank troops.

Impressions and sensations that the young soldier experienced at the front, reflected on his further sculptural work. Having learned the war from the inside, not from the 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 liberator soldiers.

After the Great Victory, Anikushin creates a series of sculptures devoted to military subjects (these are public monuments and individual portraits), in which, laconically and simply, without unnecessary detailing and expression, conveys the inner strength and energy of the objects depicted.

For example, his immortal memorial "Heroic Defenders of Leningrad", dedicated to the valiant feat of the Leningraders in the tragic time of the blockade. It is not for nothing that the monument depicts not only soldiers and officers, but also civilians-workers, women and children who covered their lives and guarded 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 did not confine himself to the only chosen topic, he did not imitate or copy someone else's style.

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

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

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

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

To each work the sculptor approached individually, deeply reflecting not only on how to convey the peculiar character of the poet, but also on how the monumental work will fit into the surrounding environment - landscapes, city buildings, highways.

Thirty Years' Labor

Among the majestic and profound works of Anikushin is a monument to Chekhov, established in the capital of the Russian Federation.

Mikhail Konstantinovich pondered over how to uniquely and uniquely convey by his sculpture the unsurpassed talent and spiritual potential of his beloved writer.

Anikushin decided to create a double monument, depicting two figures - a writer and his friend Levitan. The sculptor was always attracted by the relationship of these great gifted people, representatives of the intelligentsia of the nineteenth century.

However, the sketch of the monument did not pass through the competition, and for some time Mikhail Konstantinovich postponed his work on it.

Only thirty years later he presented a new, redone sculpture to the public. Monument Chekhov struck his eccentricity and originality. It was not the same Chekhov, who the metropolitan people used to see: in a pince-nez, with a cane and a beard.

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

Social and political sculptures

Among other works of Anikushin, it is necessary to mention his sculpture, donated by the Soviet Union to Nagasaki, the sister city of Nagasaki. The composition "Mir" 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 idea of the sculptor about a sincere commonwealth between different peoples.

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

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

The monument to Lenin on the Moscow Square contains in itself the depth and expressiveness of the personality of Vladimir Ilyich, his will, energy and steadfastness. It is interesting that the sculpture is not frozen in the usual standard for us position. On the contrary, Lenin is conveyed in motion and in action, which points to his active nature and the influence he exerted on the history of the whole of Russia.

It is noteworthy that from different angles the figure looks different. This speaks of the rare exceptional style of the sculptor, capable of transmitting the simple bright and diverse.

Confession

For his important work and significant contribution to the cultural life of his native city, Anikushin received the deserved title "Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg", as well as many awards, prizes and public titles. In his honor, the school, the square and even the planet are named.

The great sculptor died in the spring of 1997.