Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin - the great Russian sculptor and sculptor, author of many grand majestic monuments. For his significant titanic works, he was awarded many orders, medals and prizes.
Who was he - Mikhail Anikushin, whose biography intrigues everyone who at least once looked at his brilliant creations?
Let us open the veil of not only his life, creative activity, and creative quest.
The childhood of the future master
Anikushin is a talented and meticulous sculptor. The future honorary citizen of St. Petersburg was born at the turn of the two revolutions - in the fall of 1917, in Moscow, in the family of a retired military man working as a SUV.
A large family did not live well, as parents were simple workers. Therefore, little Misha faced with want and hardships since 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 difficult epoch-making time? Unlikely.
Parents did everything possible to make the children feel protected and fenced in the midst of life's storms and political hardships. 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 working villagers, outlandish pets - all this was new, interesting and entertaining for a curious child.
Awakening Talent
As he grew older, the boy delved more into what was happening, liked to watch the world around him, to do something with his own hands. He wanted to portray everything he saw - sculpted animals and people, cut, cut and sawed.
The sculptor's talent woke up in Michael quite early, so the parents, noticing the clumsy and awkward figures of his son, decided to purposefully develop his abilities and talents.
As a teenager, the boy is sent to the capital's sculpture studio at the House of Pioneers, where he studied monumental art.
Kozlov G. A. - the first teacher of Anikushin. He deepens his knowledge of modeling techniques, introduces the traditions of nineteenth-century realist sculptors, and helps improve applied art skills.
After graduation, Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin is going to enter a prestigious sculptural university 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 along the way. They categorically did not want to admit the young stranger to exams. And then a mentor from Moscow came to the rescue. He sent an urgent telegram to the leadership of the university with a request to enroll the young man, briefly telling about his phenomenal talent and extraordinary skill.
If it were not for the intercession of Kozlov, perhaps Mikhail would not have entered the university, and then Anikushin the 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 preparatory courses at the Academy. Two years later, Mikhail becomes a full-fledged university student, enrolling in the first year of the sculpture department.
Training
What did Anikushin learn at the Academy? The sculptor Matveev, one of Mikhail's teachers, a well-known and master sculptor, taught the gifted student to deeply analyze and creatively convey nature. And although Matveev insisted on a plastic generalization and artistic distraction of the image, young Anikushin developed his own individual style, not like that of a mentor. He harmoniously combines in his sculptures the bright plastic image of the work and the material manifestation of the external world.
Studying at the academy, Anikushin creates his first notable works - this is a series of figures of children, such as “Pioneer with a wreath” and “Girl with a kid”, as well as a number of small sculptures of workers at the factory, inspired by visits to the country's production plants and factories.
The Great Patriotic War
However, the gifted novice master failed to immediately begin creative activity. The Great Patriotic War began. Anikushin volunteers to go to the front, where he serves in the anti-tank troops.
The impressions and sensations that the young soldier experienced at the front reflected on his further sculptural work. Having known the war from within, not from the books and stories of eyewitnesses, but from personal actions and thoughts, Mikhail Konstantinovich was able to reflect in his works the unprecedented strength and courage of the liberating soldiers.
After the Great Victory, Anikushin creates a number of sculptures dedicated to military subjects (these are both public monuments and individual portraits), in which he simply and simply, without unnecessary detail and expression, conveys the inner strength and energy of the depicted objects.
For example, his immortal memorial “To the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad”, dedicated to the valiant feat of Leningraders in the tragic time of the blockade.
No wonder the monument depicts not only soldiers and officers, but also civilians - workers, women and children who, with their lives, covered and protected the rear of the Soviet military.
Sculptures of writers
Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin is a diverse and original sculptor. In his work, he was not limited to the only theme chosen, he did not imitate anyone and did not copy someone else's style.
Anikushin loved to create in different genres and directions, developing his own, unsurpassed and expressive style.
Throughout his life, he enjoyed working on sculptures by writers. Literature and its figures have always excited the imagination of the sculptor. He saw writers not only romantic and dreamy, not only enthusiastic and restless, but also strong in spirit, strong in body, with a deep inner core.
These are before us Pushkin and Chekhov, immortalized with a strong confident hand of the master.
Anikushin designed and created a whole cycle of Pushkin sculptures. These were monuments, and busts, and statues.
The sculptor approached each creation individually, reflecting deeply not only on how to convey the original character of the poet, but also on how the monumental work would fit into his surroundings - landscapes, city buildings, highways.
Thirty years of labor
Among the majestic and deep works of Anikushin, it is worth highlighting the monument to Chekhov, installed in the capital of the Russian Federation.
Mikhail Konstantinovich pondered for a long time how to transfer the unsurpassed talent and spiritual potential of his beloved writer in a unique and original way.
Anikushin decided to create a double monument, depicting two figures - the writer and his friend Levitan. Sculptors have always been attracted by the relations 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 work on it.
Only thirty years later, he presented to the public a new, redone sculpture.
The monument to Chekhov impressed with its originality and originality. This was not the Chekhov whom the inhabitants of the capital used to see: in a pince-nez, with a cane and beard.
Under the skillful fingers of Anikushin, Anton Pavlovich appeared as an elusive and at the same time brilliant personality, harmoniously combining nobility and talent, tragedy and dashing daring.
Socio-political sculptures
Among other works of Anikushin, it is necessary to mention his sculpture, donated by the Soviet Union to the Japanese twin city of Nagasaki. The composition “World” represents two girls holding hands. They whirl, as if in a dance, symbolizing joy, peace and unity.
The sculpture is simple and unpretentious, but it clearly reflects the sculptor's idea of a sincere community between different peoples.
Other socio-political statues of Mikhail Konstantinovich were monuments to the leader of the proletariat, so common in the Soviet era.
Although such sculptures were already erected in a stereotyped and incidental manner, Anikushin introduced his individual vision and personal view into the statue of the leader.
The Lenin Monument on Moscow Square contains the whole depth and expressiveness of the personality of Vladimir Ilyich, his will, energy and unwaveringness. It is interesting that the sculpture did not freeze in the standard pose familiar to us. On the contrary, Lenin was conveyed in movement and in action, which indicates his active nature and the influence that he had on the history of all of Russia.
It is noteworthy that from different sides the figure looks different. This speaks of the sculptor's exceptional exceptional style, capable of conveying the simple bright and diverse.
Confession
For his important activities and significant contribution to the cultural life of his native city, Anikushin received the well-deserved title “Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg”, as well as many awards, prizes and public titles. A school, square and even a planet are named in his honor.
The great sculptor died in the spring of 1997.