Glazunov Ilya Sergeevich, whose paintings will be presented below, since 1980 has been named the People's Artist of the USSR. He is the full holder of the Order for Merit to the Fatherland, and has been awarded other awards, prizes for his invaluable contribution to the development of art.
Artist Biography
Ilya Glazunov, whose paintings are now familiar to many not only in Russia but also abroad, was born in Leningrad in 1930, on June 10. When the Great Patriotic War began, he was in the besieged city. A boy from one of the family survived the blockade, all relatives died. He was taken out along the Road of Life, which passed through Lake Ladoga when he was 12 years old.
After the blockade was lifted, the teenager returned to his hometown in 1944. He graduated from the Secondary Art School, and then the Repin Institute.
In 1956, Glazunov married. In 1957, the first exhibition of his works was held, which was a great success. Authorities closed the artist’s exhibition in 1977 because of the painting “Roads of War”, which allegedly contradicted Soviet ideology. It depicted the retreat of the Soviet troops. The picture is destroyed, but there is an author’s copy, which Glazunov painted later.
Since 1987, Ilya Sergeevich is the rector of the Academy of Painting.
Early paintings
The artist's first professional work is distinguished by an academic manner. Some of them are emotional and created under the influence of impressionists and expressionism. These are exactly the pictures Glazunov Ilya Sergeevich painted in 1950 - early 1960.
The early works of the creator are “Leningrad Spring”, “Nina”, “Hell”, “Metro”, “Loneliness” and others.
The painting “The Last Bus” (1955), written at this time, allows one to visually travel back to that time. We see that dusk has thickened outside the window of the vehicle. Time after midnight. The last bus rides 3 women. One of them is a conductor, she makes notes in a notebook on the number of tickets sold. Indeed, before, before and after the war, a ticket could only be bought on a bus from a conductor, who usually worked women. She vigilantly watched so that everyone would hand over the money for the fare, and give tickets in exchange for them.
The girl in the front seat is sad, she thinks about something of her own. Perhaps she quarreled with her beloved that evening, or she was tormented by other sad thoughts.
The woman in the last seat probably went shopping all day. Now she is returning home with shopping. The woman is tired, she yawns and wants to sleep.
These are the heroines Ilya Glazunov depicted on his canvas. The paintings "Giordano Bruno", "Pianist Dranishnikova" also belong to the artist's early works.
"Eternal Russia"
Glazunov Ilya painted paintings that have received worldwide fame. These include the painting "Eternal Russia". The artist completed its creation in 1988. The second name of the canvas is “One Hundred Centuries”, because it depicts rulers, political and statesmen, military leaders and other famous people who have left their mark on history since the foundation of Kievan Rus.
Ilya Glazunov timed the painting to the millennium of the Baptism of Russia. On the canvas we see an endless procession of people, procession. The canvas depicts several churches, reverend saints, Metropolitan Peter of Moscow, Alexei of Moscow.
Kneiai: Boris, Dmitry Donskoy, Gleb, Potemkin, the artist Ilya Glazunov, whose paintings are so global, also depicted on the canvas.
Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Lermontov and other writers and poets, people of art also appear before us in the picture. Not only people, but historical events were recreated by the artist on canvas. The picture can be studied for a long time, so much it was able to accommodate people and significant events taking place in Russia.
Ilya Glazunov, gallery
The artist’s paintings, such as “Eternal Russia”, can be seen in the gallery of the creator. It is located in Moscow, on Volkhonka Street, at number 13.
Like many canvases by Ilya Sergeyevich, the painting "The Great Experiment" is large-scale in size and in reflection of the country's events. Here the artist scourges the negative events that have occurred since 1917. In the red star, he portrayed Lenin, his comrades-in-arms, who conducted a ruthless experiment to build a "new world."
With his painting, the author pronounces a sentence not only to Hitler, but also to those who fiercely fought with the church, the ideas of Christianity. Glazunov condemns with his work the later event - Perestroika.
These and other canvases of the artist can be seen in his gallery. Impressions from visiting this place will remain for a long time.