Primitive painting paintings. Primitivism - naive art

Naive art This concept is used in several senses and is actually identical to the concept "primitive art". In different languages ​​and by different scientists, these concepts are most often used to designate the same range of phenomena in artistic culture. In Russian (as in some others), the term “primitive” has a somewhat negative meaning. Therefore, it is more appropriate to dwell on the concept Naive art. In the broadest sense, this designates fine art, characterized by simplicity (or simplification), clarity and formal spontaneity of figurative and expressive language, with the help of which a special vision of the world is expressed, not burdened by civilizational conventions. The concept appeared in the new European culture of recent centuries, and therefore reflects the professional positions and ideas of this culture, which considered itself the highest stage of development. From these positions, Naive art also includes the archaic art of ancient peoples (before the Egyptian or ancient Greek civilizations), for example, primitive art; the art of peoples delayed in their cultural and civilizational development (indigenous populations of Africa, Oceania, American Indians); amateur and non-professional art on a wide scale (for example, the famous medieval frescoes of Catalonia or the non-professional art of the first American settlers from Europe); many works of the so-called “international Gothic”; folk art; finally, the art of talented primitivist artists of the 20th century,

who did not receive a professional art education, but who felt the gift of artistic creativity and devoted themselves to its independent implementation in art. Some of them (French A. Rousseau, C. Bombois, Georgian N.Pirosmanishvili, Croatian I. Generalich, American A.M.Robertson etc.) created true artistic masterpieces that are included in the treasury of world art. Naive art, in its vision of the world and methods of its artistic presentation, is somewhat close to the art of children, on the one hand, and to the creativity of the mentally ill, on the other. However, in essence it differs from both. The closest thing in worldview to children's art is the naive art of the archaic peoples and aborigines of Oceania and Africa. Its fundamental difference from children's art lies in its deep sacredness, traditionalism and canonicity. Childhood naivety and spontaneity of worldview seemed frozen forever in this art; its expressive forms and elements of artistic language were filled with sacred-magical significance and cult symbolism, which has a fairly stable field of irrational meanings. In children's art they are very mobile and do not carry a cultic load. Naive art, as a rule, is optimistic in spirit, life-affirming, multifaceted and diverse, and most often has a fairly high aesthetic significance. In contrast, the art of the mentally ill, often close to it in form, is characterized by a painful obsession with the same motives, a pessimistic-depressive mood, and a low level of artistry. Works of Naïve art are extremely diverse in form and individual style, but many of them are characterized by the absence of linear perspective (many primitivists strive to convey depth using different scales of figures, a special organization of shapes and color masses), flatness, simplified rhythm and symmetry, and the active use of local colors , generalization of forms, emphasizing the functionality of an object due to certain deformations, increased significance of the contour, simplicity of technical techniques. Primitivist artists of the 20th century, who are familiar with classical and contemporary professional art, often come up with interesting and original artistic solutions when trying to imitate certain techniques of professional art in the absence of appropriate technical knowledge and skills. Artists of Naïve art most often take subjects from the life around them, folklore, religious mythology or their own imagination. It is easier for them than many professional artists to achieve spontaneous, intuitive creativity, not hampered by cultural and social rules and prohibitions. As a result, original, surprisingly pure, poetic and sublime artistic worlds arise, in which a certain ideal naive harmony between nature and man reigns. It was these qualities of Naive art that attracted the attention of many 20th century art masters, from the early avant-garde artists to the conceptualists and postmodernists. Many major artists of the 20th century used certain techniques and elements of the primitivist language in their work. (expressionists, P.Klee, M.Chagall, H.Miro, P.Picasso and etc.). In Naive art, many representatives of culture strive to see ways out of artistic culture from civilizational dead ends.

Primitivism (neo-primitivism)
- a direction that arose in European and Russian art at the beginning of the twentieth century. His main
a sign was a programmatic simplification of artistic means, an appeal to various forms of primitive art - folk and children's art, primitive and medieval art, etc. At its core was the desire to gain a purity of view of the world, inherent in a consciousness unspoiled by civilization.
In Russia, primitivism is most clearly represented by the names N.S. Goncharova, M.F. Larionov, K.S. Malevich, artists of the groups "Jack of Diamonds", "Donkey's Tail" and some artists of the "Blue Rose". The source of inspiration for neo-primitivists is the art of the East, as well as popular prints, provincial signs, children's creativity, folk toys, and the art of primitive cultures.

"After this Gurdjieff went on to explain the various functions of man and

centers that manage these functions. These ideas are presented in the same order in

lectures on psychology. The explanations and related discussions took quite some time.

a lot of time... there is no way to convey these conversations as they were

really happened. Therefore, I collected all the material on psychology and

cosmology in two separate series of lectures. It should be noted here that the ideas were not

given to us in the form as they are presented in the lectures."

Meaning

I know you exist. You are not a figment of my imagination, not a dream, not a sick fantasy, not an illusion. Sometimes it seems to me that you are very close. Almost behind my back. Or next to a stream of people. One has only to close my eyes in the fleeting now and I will hear your voice, or I will turn around on a dark night at a deserted crossroads and meet your gaze. But time goes by. Day after day. Year after year. As before. But you're not there. Sometimes you give up and don’t have the strength to take even a step. I want to leave everything behind and sign my own powerlessness in blood. To tear out the very thought that you are still here. But I remember. You've never lost. She didn't leave first. So I can’t afford to give up either. We started this Game long before birth and it is hardly destined to end. I don't remember how long this has been going on. I have met your thoughts and actions in others. And he believed. I have found. And he clung like a madman to a ghostly hope. You play with me through people who were near and dear to me. You know, it hurts. But time puts everything in its place. And understanding is reassembled from the broken fragments of the distant past. I know it may not be easy for you right now either. So much has been passed, so much has been found that resembles sincerity and reciprocity. But that was my thoughts too. They caught on, stuck in your heart and made you believe that your search was over. But time put everything in its place. And you are alone again. I know it hurts. I'm sorry. I'll just say one thing. I am not a figment of your imagination, not a dream, not a sick fantasy, not an illusion. I exist. And one day we will meet again and will never lose each other.

Rubinshtein S.L. Being and Consciousness

On the place of the psyche in the universal interconnection of phenomena of the material world

To the problem statement

The inquisitive, searching thought of a person, penetrating with ever-increasing passion and success into the depths of the universe, cognizes the material world in its infinity - in big and small, comprehends the structure of the atom and the Universe, solves one after another the problems that nature poses to it at every step. This inquisitive, searching thought of man could not help but turn to himself, could not help but dwell on the question of the relationship between thinking and nature, the spiritual and the material. This is the fundamental question of philosophy. Its different solution separates idealism and materialism - the main directions fighting in philosophy. The theoretical significance of this issue is obvious.

But questions of grand theory, correctly posed and correctly understood, are at the same time practical questions of great significance. To truly see major theoretical problems means to see them in relation to the fundamental questions of life.

The question of the connection between the mental and the material, of the dependence of the mental on material conditions, is a question not only of cognition, but also about controllability mental processes. The solution to the question of the dependence of one or another course of mental processes on objective conditions determines the ways of formation, directed change, and education of human psychology. Correctly posed questions of understanding the world are ultimately related to the tasks of its revolutionary transformation.

Marc Chagall “Lovers” Primitivism You carry your hair towards me, and I, sensing your gaze and trembling, body trembling, I want to ask you again: where are my old flowers under the wedding blasphemy, distant? I remember: it was night, and you were next to me, and for the first time I lay down next to you, and we extinguished the Moon, and the flames of the candles began to flow, and...

Frida Kahlo “Still Life with a Frightened Bride”, 1943 Primitivism The meaning of Frida Kahlo’s works is always hidden deep inside. Taking a quick glance at the picture, the viewer will never understand the meaning, because every object becomes a symbol. The bride is a small doll peeping out of a cut watermelon. The two parts of the watermelon shown in the picture are not two halves. They symbolize love and passion that...

Marc Zakharovich Chagall “Blue House”, 1917 Museum of Fine Arts, Liege Primitivism Vitebsk was Chagall’s favorite city, an iconic place that the artist always remembered and cherished these memories. It is no coincidence that when the painter had the opportunity to visit the Soviet Union at the invitation of Furtseva, Chagall deliberately refused a trip to Vitebsk - he wanted to preserve the old city, the city of his own, in his soul...

Frida Kahlo “Broken Column”, 1944 Dolores Olmedo Museum, Mexico City Primitivism, self-portrait In this painting, Frida expressed all the physical and mental pain that she constantly experienced throughout her life. She suffered from polio as a child, and in her early youth she was in a car accident and was bedridden for some time. Her spine was broken in several places...

Marc Chagall “Me and the Village”, 1911 Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA Primitivism Thanks to the financial support of capital patrons, Chagall ended up in Paris in 1910. The young artist, having first moved from apartment to apartment, soon settled in a pavilion called “La Ruche”, which translated means “The Beehive”. This wooden building housed more than a hundred dirty, squalid, but cheap...

Henri Rousseau "Carnival Evening", 1886 Museum of Art, Philadelphia Primitivism This is one of Rousseau's early paintings, although he painted it at the age of 42. Henri Rousseau worked as a customs officer until he was forty and began writing only when he retired. A year before the “Carnival Evening”, he exhibited his copies of old paintings in the free Art Salon on the Champs Elysees...

Frida Kahlo “Girl with a Death Mask”, 1938 Naive art (Primitivism) Nagoya City Museum, Japan Frida Kahlo (Spanish: Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón, July 6, 1907, Coyoacan - July 13, 1954, Coyoacan) - Mexican artist, wife of Diego Rivera. In the works of Frida Kahlo, the influence of Mexican folk art and the culture of pre-Columbian civilizations of America is very strong. Her work is full of symbols and...

Marc Chagall “Happiness”, 1980 Paper, lithograph, 116 x 75.5 cm National Museum of Marc Chagall, Nice, France Primitivism In our lives there is one and only paint, like on the artist’s palette, that gives meaning to life and art. This is the color of love. - Marc Chagall.

January 10, 2016 marked the 109th anniversary of the birth of the famous Kuzbass artist Ivan Egorovich Selivanov.

He was called the Siberian Pirosmani and Van Gogh, and this is in many ways a correct comparison. Patrons, art critics, and admirers hovered around both for some time - however, both Pirosmani and Selivanov died alone, having gained posthumous fame.

I walked to myself long and hard

The famous Kuzbass primitivist artist Ivan Egorovich Selivanov was born on January 10, 1907. “I was born in the Arkhangelsk province in the Shenkursky district in the Edem village council in the village of Vasilyevskaya to a poor peasant beggar family,” he himself recalled.

Later he wrote: “I was born by my mother Tatyana Egorovna not for big money, not for a luxurious life, but simply for life, like every living creature in nature. He was brought up among the beggarly class. My whole life, all my work was in vain, and why - I don’t know. Are there really people who will swallow my work like a greedy crocodile or throw it away? Future generations will not praise such people.”

“My father died early, in 1912. My mother left three sons from my father: the elder brother was born in 1904, I was born in 1907, the youngest brother was born in 1912. My mother, brother Sergei and I immediately after my father’s death had to go and collect alms for the sake of Jesus Christ. In 1922, I went to the neighboring village of Ivanovsk to become a shepherd. It was impossible for my mother and us three brothers to live in our village due to the lack of land. I left my homeland - the village in 1924 on February 5th. My fate and happiness were difficult on someone else’s side, there was also beggary...”

Ivan Egorovich has tried many different jobs in his time. He worked as a blacksmith, mechanic, fireman, stove maker, watchman, and lived a difficult and meager life. He mastered the art of stoves to perfection, having built so many well-made stoves that he could live a century in honor and contentment, but his soul was always waiting for something, he couldn’t sit in one place.

And then life turned out like this: I wandered for many years. Visited many cities. He went to construction sites in Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Onega, Sverdlovsk, Zaporozhye. Here he chose his wife, Varvara Illarionovna, for the rest of his life. Together with her, he went to Leningrad, where the Great Patriotic War found them. It was from there that in 1941 Ivan Egorovich was evacuated to Kuzbass. At first he lives in Novokuznetsk, Mundybash, works as a hammer hammer, loader, mechanic, and plasterer. I never thought about art, I didn’t have time...

And in 1943 he moved to Prokopyevsk.

In the city of miners, he decided to work on the railway as a lineman. We lived in the village of Golubevka. And the place where later, in 1951, Ivan Yegorovich built a house for himself was called Mars. He smelled of exoticism, romance, and space. It was not for nothing that Ivan Yegorovich sat on the porch of the house on summer evenings and looked at the stars above his head.

Selivanov did not immediately come to the idea of ​​painting. In 1946, he saw a painting in a store. The colorfulness of the haystack surprised him, stirring his soul. In his own words, “a revolution took place in life, a storm arose in the whole body, like in the sea.” I wanted to draw myself.

And in his first drawing in his life, Selivanov depicted a sparrow. By this time he was almost 40 years old. So, already in adulthood, he began to draw. First - with a pencil, later - he mastered oil painting.

Friends and relatives laughed: “What are you thinking, weirdo, to study at forty years old! And why? Some trifle, drawing.” The wife was also indignant: “It would be better if I installed the stove!” But I was born stubborn, whatever I thought, I’ll suddenly do it,” Selivanov recalled about the beginning of his work. As experts will later consider, his tenacity lies in his surname itself: it comes from the canonical male name Selivan (from the Latin silvanus - “god of forests”).

Everything seen and experienced required rethinking, visible embodiment. This is apparently how poets, musicians, writers, and artists are born. The spark of talent flares up brightly in gifted people, regardless of time and age...

By chance, he saw in a newspaper an advertisement for the admission of amateur artists to the Moscow Correspondence People's University of Arts named after N.K. Krupskaya (ZNUI). Ivan Yegorovich sent documents and a drawing of a sparrow to the People's University. And soon he received a notice of enrollment; Yulia Ferapontovna Luzan was appointed as his teacher-consultant.

Ivan Egorovich turned out to be a persistent, promising student. Experienced teachers and artists noticed this. They did everything to pass on their knowledge to him.

“I started studying art and creativity in September 1947. I studied without time limits under the pretext of what would happen and what would work out. I still draw at the request of my teacher Aksenov Yu.G. for illustrations for textbooks and literature, which is very, very important not only for the Correspondence University of the Arts, but for the whole country, and I don’t bother about paying anyone for my work. It doesn't suit me. Sooner or later people will understand my invaluable, colossal work,” recalls I.E. Selivanov later.

Becoming an artist

After entering ZNUI, Ivan Yegorovich’s life was filled with new content and joyful creativity. “For him, art was not an end in itself, but a way to develop himself and respond to the pain of the world,” recalled his second teacher, Yuri Grigorievich Aksyonov, who was appointed to him after the death of Yu.F. Luzan. With Yu.G. The artist consulted and corresponded with Aksenov for 40 years.

Selivanov's first works are drawings colored with watercolors or colored pencils. At the center of his creativity is an object, an animal or a person as a self-sufficient phenomenon.

The course teachers who taught Selivanov, of course, guessed about the enormous talent that lay hidden in their Prokopyevsk student. But when in 1956 he sent them a portrait of a girl, even they were amazed. This was Selivanov’s insight, his “finest hour.”

Experts immediately called the “Girl” an “amateur Mona Lisa,” seeing in her, according to Yu.G. Aksenov, “an artist’s ethnic tale about his native North. In the golden-sunny coloring of this work, an attentive eye could see a discreet northern landscape, which remained forever the artist’s most cherished memory.”

Since that time, Ivan Yegorovich has been working a lot: he makes self-portraits, portraits, still lifes, landscapes, animal works, and depicts his poor household: a cat, a chicken, a rooster.

All works - and there are already about 400 of them - are immediately sent to Moscow: “for posterity, for new generations,” many of his works are kept in the capital today. It was Moscow that “discovered” Selivanov. Films about him, exhibitions - everything was conceived and organized here. Local authorities and representatives of the “creative intelligentsia” and “professionals” did not recognize the artist.

Selivanov refused to sell his works. During his lifetime, only two paintings were sold: “Self-Portrait” - to Suzdal, and one of two portraits of director M.S. Litvyakov - to the All-Union Museum of Folk Art. Ivan Yegorovich does not agree to sell his works anymore; he strives to ensure that they are all in one place (in Moscow).

Ivan Yegorovich often performed his works based on his impressions of films. This is exactly how he created about 50 works, and those works that he donated to the Novokuznetsk Museum of Fine Arts in 1978 were made based on impressions from the cinema: “Spartacus”, “Anka the Machine Gunner”, “Pavka Korchagin”.

In his drawings “Napoleon”, “Lomonosov”, “Copernicus”, “Robespierre” one is struck by their strict similarity to the original image and some kind of naive simplicity in handling. Like retelling a classic text in your own words. The artist drew the picture “Spartacus” without reading Giovagnoli’s novel. As experts note, “he wrote it simultaneously in ancient clarity, Slavic simplicity and gentleness.”

Ivan Yegorovich's works were recommended for display at major art exhibitions. They receive the most enthusiastic reviews. The artist Robert Falk, having seen his “Girl,” put it briefly: “Take care,” meaning both the picture and the author. And art critic Mikhail Alpatov wrote in the magazine “Creativity”: “And we can be proud of amateur artists. Among them there are those who can be placed next to Niko Pirosmani and Henri Rousseau, who deservedly took their places in art museums.”

Ivan Yegorovich's paintings were exhibited in many cities in our country and abroad: in Paris, London, Prague, Berlin, Bonn, Budapest, Montreal, New York. Academician of painting Georgy Nissky and American artist Anton Refrezhier drew attention to his work.

But Ivan Yegorovich himself for a long time did not know about his wide popularity and fame, although from time to time he was cordially congratulated and informed about the reviews that artists and critics gave about his works. He wasn't vain. He was offered to sell one of the works abroad for a lot of money, but he flatly refused: “Everything that was done belongs only to my Soviet Russia.” And yet glory is glory. He felt satisfaction, a surge of mental and physical strength, inspiration and joy.

In 1969, the famous documentary director Mikhail Litvyakov made the film “People of the Kuznetsk Land”, one of the short stories of which was dedicated to Ivan Selivanov. And in 1984, a feature film directed by Viktor Prokhorov, “Seraphim Polubes and Other Inhabitants of the Earth,” was released, which was based on Selivanov’s biography and his works were shown. The film tells the story of a self-taught village artist, the so-called “naive” painter. The audience's attention was literally riveted by the footage showing the artist's work. Dog. Cow. Rooster. The girl feeds the chickens. Cat. Self-portrait. The paintings amaze with the purity of a child’s amazed gaze and the maturity of the master’s handwriting.

By the way, when the premiere of this film was held in the central cinema of Prokopyevsk, no one paid attention to the old man who was brought by two teachers. So the premiere of the film took place for Selivanov himself.

One of the central places in the work of Ivan Yegorovich Selivanov is occupied by animals and birds. The artist’s natural talent revealed to the audience “Girl with Chickens”, “Lion in the Forest”, “Landscape with a Wolf”, “Puma”, “Dog”, “Rooster Family”, “Deer”, “Cat”, “Landscape. (Cows).” He depicts them with great imagination, carefully, lovingly, endowing them with slyness, innocence, as if humanizing their images: with large, thoughtful, sad “Selivanovsky” eyes, dogs, cows and birds look at us from the artist’s drawings.

Although official relations with the People's University have ended, Selivanov has been sending his paintings there for almost four decades. He sent Yu.G. Aksyonov wrote a huge number of parables and diary entries, calling them “writings for the development of a personal brain system.” These are amazingly naked feelings and “clumsy” in language Selivanov’s cherished thoughts about life, about work, about art.

Here are some of them: “I really love animals. I can draw anyone you want from memory. Nature gives us a mood, a feeling of beauty. Without this there can be no artist.”

The artist accompanied the landscape “My Motherland, My Home” with the following words: “I love you, Russian land, after the darkness of the night, when the sun rises. He's still breathing, he's laughing, he's looking into your eyes. Your heart rejoices, your soul dances. How good you are, Russian land, my Motherland!”

Confession

In the best works of I.E. Selivanov - and these are mostly portraits - showed the gift of a living grasp of nature. Over twenty years, he made forty portraits of his wife. In his portraits, Selivanov manages to convey the “penetration” of his gaze. This gaze, as on ancient icons, does not leave the viewer, “leading” him, no matter where he looks at the picture. Usually one of Selivanov's best works is impressive - his "Self-Portrait". A bearded old man, who knows his worth, looks at the viewer almost point-blank with bright eyes, a kind of sage-sorcerer from Russian folklore, a bearer of eternal truths, an enchanted wanderer-truth-seeker. Ivan Yegorovich himself in life is a small stature, with heavenly blue eyes, a completely earthly person with his practical concerns, passions and ambitions.

When his wife Varvara Illarionovna, who shared hardships and joys with him, died, the house on Mars fell silent. SOUTH. Aksyonov recalls that “in the mid-1970s, Ivan Yegorovich suddenly fell silent: there were no parcels with works or letters from him. Worried if something had happened? And suddenly a year later a picture comes: Selivanovsky’s cat Vasya is sitting in the snow with sad eyes. It became clear: a misfortune had happened.” The blue shadow of the cat, with its piercing blueness, chilled the souls of the audience, emphasizing the desolation of the cowering figure. The cat’s eyes seemed to cry out: “Why have you all forgotten about me, poor fellow?” This is a feeling of terrible loneliness, when it seems to you that in the entire Universe, dark and formless, only you exist alone. For Ivan Yegorovich it was a year of severe depression.

In 1985, Ivan Egorovich entered the Insky Home for the Elderly and Disabled, located on the shore of the Belovskoye Reservoir, near the city of Belovo. He was on government support, receiving, as he put it, a salary-pension. Two rooms were allocated for him, one of them for a workshop. He spent all daylight hours at his easel. He evoked different feelings in those around him. The personality is mysterious and significant for boarding school residents, unusual. Legends, sometimes absurd, began to appear around his name. Envious people denigrated his work, comparing it to bazaar isokhultura, speaking contemptuously about his life outside the walls of this house.

In Kuzbass, Ivan Selivanov opened up to a wide audience only in 1986. Then, after Vladimir Dolmatov’s article in the newspaper “Soviet Russia” “Blue cat on white snow”, the name of Ivan Yegorovich was heard almost throughout the country. In the same year, two personal exhibitions of the artist were held one after another in Kemerovo and Novokuznetsk.

To say that the audience was stunned would be an understatement. Our well-known and at the same time some completely new reality was revealed to the audience. New Universe. The spectators walked around and, shocked, tortured each other, why does the heart ache at the sight of a sad monkey, and what is so fascinating about “The Family of the Rooster”? Ivan Yegorovich himself, small and unprepossessing, in new tarpaulin boots, and he only recognized felt boots and tarpaulin boots, an unusual jacket and cap, did not explain anything. He looked wisely and slyly, as if he was not involved in the excitement that flared up around him. And only when I stood next to my self-portraits did it become clear that it was all his. In them, Selivanov always portrayed himself as powerful, full of inner strength. There was more than enough strength in him.

And this despite the fact that his talent in specialist circles has long been recognized as a national treasure. In a letter to I.E. Selivanov Corresponding Member of the Academy of Arts S.M. Nikireev writes: “For me, you are an artist of enormous, rare talent, such as the Russian land rarely gives birth to. You are an amazing talent. I wish you to be healthy and confident that you are a nugget of extraordinary weight and brilliance.”

The last lifetime exhibition of I.E. Selivanova took place in 1987 - the year of the artist’s 80th birthday. Ivan Yegorovich celebrated his 80th birthday as a famous amateur artist of the Russian Federation. On the territory of the Insk boarding house he painted his last paintings: “Self-Portrait” and “Portrait of a Mother”.

It was Yuri Grigorievich Aksenov who suggested that he paint a portrait of his mother. Ivan Yegorovich thought seriously about this and began to remember how his mother remained in his memory. He had not seen her since he was twenty; she died in 1937. And here in the picture appears the face of a true northerner from the village of Vasilyevskaya, Shenkursky district, Arkhangelsk province. Light eyes, light luxuriant hair, habitually tied up in a bun, a simple Russian face. A peasant woman whose hands spun, weaved, kneaded dough, and cultivated a tiny piece of land. A woman of a bitter fate, left without a husband with three children and forced to send them, grown up, torn from their hearts, “to the people.” Supreme simplicity, even holiness in this face. It was necessary to live such a long and difficult life as Ivan Yegorovich lived in order to comprehend the image of his mother and see a glimpse of the eternal in his native features.

...Ivan Yegorovich died on March 1, 1988, alone. He was buried in the village of Inskoy, Belovsky district, Kemerovo region, at the local cemetery. He lived only five days before the day when they showed a documentary about his life, in which he considered it “sacred to work until the last days of his life.”

His friends and admirers left him, philosophizing over every inch of his painting, about every word he wrote. But I.E. Selivanov left us a prophetic word: “A person lives as long as he enjoys life.” He left behind not fully appreciated writings and legends, a story he had begun about two Arkhangelsk boys.

His name is included in the World Encyclopedia of Naive Art, which was published in the UK. His works received three Grand Prix at International Exhibitions in Paris. Over four decades of creative activity, artist I.E. Selivanov left hundreds of paintings and sketches. Some of them are kept in the Prokopyevsk Local Lore Museum.

In 1990, the publishing house “Young Guard” published a book by I.E. Selivanov and N.G. Kataeva “And there was life...” The book contains reproductions of the artist's paintings and his diaries. In them he spoke about the tragedy, pain and beauty of Russian life.

...Both the Georgian artist Pirosmani and Selivanov, first of all, have the same fates. Both knew about their high gift. Both were homeless and poor. Patrons, art critics, and admirers hovered around both of them for some time. However, both Pirosmani and Selivanov died alone, gaining fame after death. The image of Russia by Ivan Selivanov is patience and will, suffering, strength and self-sacrifice. Extremely restrained, strict, intense work. He was the same in speech. Both there and here - ascetic power and absolute simplicity of expression.

The sun of glory does not often shine on original artists from the people. Therefore, I really want this simple, kind, honest and noble name - Ivan Egorovich Selivanov, who has glorified folk art more than once at exhibitions in our country and abroad, not to be forgotten. Because the work of this artist from the people is our national wealth, which must be protected.

Based on materialsInternet

The severity and spirituality of the Russian North - his homeland - lives in his works. Another distinctive feature of Selivanov is his unique philosophy, reflected in the diary entries that the artist kept for many years.

The colorful style of lively folk speech, vivid images of memories and dreams, aphoristic statements - all this makes Selivanov’s diary heritage no less valuable than his artistic works.

“You can’t figure it out for yourself without the help of others. Maybe this is a quirk? Devilish power in my brains?..” - these words of Selivanov could be used as an epigraph to the entire study of naive art.

Creativity I.E. Selivanov, discovered by Muscovites at exhibitions in the so-called clubs of the creative intelligentsia - Central House of Artists, Central House of Artists, the Board of the Union of Artists on Gogolevsky Boulevard - was perceived as a breath of fresh air, as evidence that folk art is still alive, despite years of state exploitation and distortion .

It was with the work of Selivanov and several other original artists “discovered” in those years that a wave of general enthusiasm for naive art began, which reached its peak in the 1970s.

Selivanov’s first teacher at the Moscow Correspondence People’s University of Arts named after N.K. Krupskaya (ZNUI) Yulia Ferapontovna Luzan came up with a happy idea in 1947: to ask the student to draw animals from the front and in profile. The characters in his drawings during this period were a cow, a dog, a cat, a rooster, and until the end of his life they were the artist’s faithful friends and “interlocutors.”

Later, when Yu.G. became the artist’s teacher. Aksenov, an elephant, a lion, and a doe appeared in Selivanov’s works. The artist turned to Aksenov with a request to help “understand incomprehensible words in all literature... Write, as promised, what non-objective art, aesthetics, dogmatics are... I’m sending four hundred words in total.”

Ivan Selivanov and the cultural world with which he came into contact spoke different languages. He carefully studied the album “Russian Portrait”, but this did not have any influence on his own portraits.

None of the neighbors wanted to pose for the artist. He portrayed his wife, teachers, heroes of popular films - Spartacus, Cleopatra. His self-portraits are the most significant. Selivanov had the characteristic appearance of a Russian peasant - a thick beard, a cap of thick hair cut into a bowl, a piercing, cunning gaze.

He attracted the attention of television journalists and filmmakers, and was written about in the local and central press. But still, the circle of people who directly communicated with the artist did not themselves have a high enough educational level to adequately interpret his art.

His work to this day has not been described in detail in the language of modern science. An original peasant philosopher, a stranger in the world of “developed socialism,” Ivan Yegorovich Selivanov projected into his work images of a harmonious world order - a home with a garden, friends, teachers, heroes and every creature of God.

Personal exhibitions of I.E. Selivanova:

Central House of Writers, Moscow, 1971;

In honor of the 70th anniversary of I.E. Selivanova, Moscow, 1977; In honor of the 80th anniversary of I.E. Selivanova, Museum of Fine Arts, Kemerovo region, 1986;

Museum of Fine Arts of Novokuznetsk, 1986;

Central Exhibition Hall of the Moscow Branch of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR, Moscow, 1987.

Exhibitions featuring the artist’s works:

Exhibition of works by amateur artists, students of correspondence courses at the Central Children's Science and Technology Center named after. N.K. Krupskaya, Central House of Artists, Moscow, 1965;

All-Russian exhibition of works by amateur artists, Moscow, 1960;

All-Union exhibitions of amateur artists in Moscow: 1967, 1970, 1974, 1977, 1985;

Exhibition “100 works of original artists”, Moscow, Board Hall of the Union of Artists on Gogolevsky Boulevard, 1971;

Anniversary exhibition of works by students of the Faculty of Fine Arts in honor of the 50th anniversary of ZNUI in the Central Exhibition Hall of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR in Podolsk, 1983-1984;

"Naifs sovietiques" (France), 1988;

All-Russian exhibition of works by amateur artists in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, All-Russian Museum of Folk Art, Moscow, 1985;

“Golden Dream”, 1992;

"Paradise Apples", 2000;

"Festnaive-04".

Collections of paintings by I.E. Selivanov are stored:

State House of Folk Art;

Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve;

Museum "Tsaritsyno", Moscow.

Filmography:

“People of the Kuznetsk Land”, dir. M. Litvyakov, Leningrad Documentary Film Studio, 1969;

“They Drew Since Childhood”, dir. K. Revenko, Central Television, television film, 1979;

“Kuzbass Pirosmanashvili”, Kemerovo television studio, 1981;

“Seraphim Polubes and Other Inhabitants of the Earth” (a feature film using Selivanov’s works), dir. V. Prokhorov, Mosfilm, 1984;

"Blue Cat on White Snow", dir. V. Lovkova, TsSDF, 1987.

Literature:

Shkarovskaya N. Folk amateur art. L., 1975;

World Encyclopedia of Naive Art. London, 1984. R. 529;

Ivan Selivanov is a painter. Essays about the artist. Kemerovo, 1988;

Selivanov I.E., Kataeva N.G. And there was life... M., 1990;

Exhibition of works by amateur artists, students of correspondence courses at the Central Children's Science and Technology Center named after. N.K. Krupskaya, Central House of Artists, Moscow, 1965.

Catalog of articles in print media:

Alpatov M. Directly and sincerely // Creativity. 1966. No. 10;

Gerchuk Yu. Are primitives primitive? // Creation. 1972. No. 2;

Baldina O. Second calling. M., 1983;

Aksenov Yu. See with your own eyes // Artist. 1986. No. 9;

Shkarovskaya N. The attraction of love for nature // Ogonyok. 1987. No. 36;

Amateur fine art // Amateur artistic creativity: Essays on the history of the 1960-1990s. St. Petersburg, 1999.

A POOR ARTIST IS DESTINY?! SOME FACTS FROM THE LIFE OF IVAN SELIVANOV

The name of the Prokopchanian Ivan Selivanov is included in the Encyclopedia of Naive Art, published in the UK. Abroad, Ivan Yegorovich was called the Russian Pirosmani and Van Gogh, he entered the top ten best naive artists of Russia.

His works were taken to London and New York, sold illegally, and he languished in poverty. Over the course of 45 years, Selivanov wrote hundreds of paintings and sketches, but his diaries with his own philosophical views are no less interesting. The local history museum of Prokopyevsk houses a small collection of his works, about a hundred are in Moscow in the State Russian House of Folk Art.

I am mentally ill... Why did I find myself in such conditions? Every asshole woman controls me! This also affects the entire body, the brain system... This is a quote from the film “Ivan Selivanov. Fragments of Life"

In the Central City Hospital named after. Gogol's salon "Artist" held an evening in memory of Ivan Selivanov. An e-book dedicated to the original artist from Prokopevsk has appeared on the library website. It included articles about Selivanov, previously unpublished photographs and reproductions of paintings. For 20 years, art critic Galina Stepanovna Ivanova collected material for the book bit by bit.

In April 1986, the artist was invited to the “Dialogue” film club; he visited the Dostoevsky Museum and the Kuznetsk Fortress. In the workshop of Vitaly Karmanov, where he was brought, he was surprised that the artist could have so many tubes of paint.

Fans of Selivanov’s work have preserved the posters for his personal exhibition, which took place on October 22, 1986 at the Novokuznetsk Art Museum.

Selivanov spent his last years in a boarding home for the elderly and disabled in the village. Inskoy. He experienced his situation of lack of freedom, calling himself a government person who, due to a disorder of the soul, cannot work.

- I’m mentally ill... Why did I find myself in such conditions? Every asshole woman bosses me around! This affects the entire body, the brain system...

He did not live long in his own house, where he was moved a year before his death. On March 5, 1988, Selivanov was buried.

On one of her visits to Selivanov, Galina Ivanova (at the artist’s request) brought Ivan Yegorovich a plate and a frying pan. Then it turned out that he used this plate instead of a palette.
He covered the frying pan with newspaper, put a mug of solvent in it, and only then began to write. In recent years he has worked in oils.

The Lenkom Theater was touring in Novokuznetsk and actors Nikolai Karachentsov and Oleg Yankovsky came to our studio (film and photo bureau KMK). Just the day before, the art connoisseur and collector Yankovsky came to visit Selivanov, not realizing the eccentric disposition of the owner.

“I am a famous actor Oleg Yankovsky,” the Lenkomov resident began from the threshold.

The popular actor had no choice but to follow the old man’s advice. He saw the works of the genius artist later - in the documentary film by S. Shakuro and V. Skoda. Nikolai Karachentsov looked with genuine admiration at the small (height 154 cm!), bearded man, and was still surprised:

What a complete character!

The next day Nikolai Petrovich brought the entire troupe to the screening...

When you read his thoughts, you think that he is a real philosopher:

“A person is not born by himself, he comes into this world for some reason unknown to anyone, and he is connected with everything alive.
If a person treats his work and his comrades honestly, then he fulfills the law on fair social labor.”

“To live a day with true truth on earth, you need to work a lot on yourself from morning to evening. So that the heart and soul in their purity are equal to amber or the rays of the sun.”

“I consider it happiness to be independent from others, to eat rye bread with potatoes in their skins and a little salt and a lot of water. Let it be uncomfortable and dirty in my hut, it doesn’t matter. I consider the warmth in my hut in winter to be important. There are as many old men, young women and old women like me throughout the entire earth’s crust.”

IVAN SELIVANOV: LIFE AND FATE

« I was born by my mother... not for big money, not for a luxurious life, but simply for life, like every living creature in nature" This is what the hero of our article, the unique Russian artist and thinker Ivan Egorovich Selivanov (1907-1988), thought and wrote.

No, officially he was not a “people’s artist” - he did not receive any academic titles or regalia from the state. But he was a true “artist of the people” of the USSR era. Along with Niko Pirosmani and Efim Chestnyakov, he is a treasure of humanity. And his diaries, in terms of their content and depth, can be called real folk wisdom... Today we will talk about him, his fate and thoughts.

This article is not a biographical sketch; we did not set out to fully illuminate the life path of Ivan Selivanov, but we still cannot do without a short introduction. This is what local historian, researcher of his life and work Nina Grigorievna Kataeva writes:

« The artist met me in a house built on the territory of a boarding school for labor veterans in the village of Inskom, Belovsky district, Kemerovo region. The house was built like a hut, in which Selivanov lived for thirty-four years. Old age, infirmity and loneliness forced her to part with her, and after a year of woeful existence in the comfort of a room in a nursing home, the old artist I finally felt that local leaders cared about me».

The teacher of Selivanov, this original artist, a village stove maker, Yuri Grigorievich Aksyonov from the Moscow Correspondence People's University of Arts, spoke about him like this: “The only thing his life saved him from was from the camp. Everything else was there.” What else? Really, that's it. Unfair accusations, hunger, cold, poverty, loneliness, wandering without work. But perhaps it was precisely thanks to this fate that the artist managed to remain crystal clear until his last breath.

An art critic from Poland, having heard at a film evening in Moscow, at the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR, that a worthy home for Selivanov’s heritage had not yet been found, exclaimed in surprise:

- Yes, if we found such an artist as your Ivan Yegorovich, we would give him the best museum in Warsaw!

Well, the Poles might have given it up. There is no prophet in his own country.

The Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner

Selivanov himself treated the vicissitudes of fate not exactly stoically, but rather humbly, as if they were inevitable. He did not consider himself an artist at all.

- I am a man who paints pictures between household chores, he said. And he repeatedly referred to Leo Tolstoy, who, when asked why his characters were all counts and princes, answered:

"Because they can control history."

Selivanov also believed that the poor cannot influence the course of historical events. And when they tried to convince him, saying: “You are a creator and cannot help but influence the course of life!”,” he repeated: "No, I'm a beggar".

And he treated money the same way. When the scammer swindled him out of everything he managed to get for the exhibitions, he just shrugged his shoulders: “Well, apparently she needs it more...”

Ivan Yegorovich left behind a lot of diary notebooks - here are “Prophetic Dreams of an Artist”, and “Where Are You, Happiness?”, and “Tales and Parables”... And he considered the notebook that we will now partly get acquainted with especially significant for himself.

"Applies to everyone"

This is exactly what Selivanov titled one of his diary notebooks: “Concerns everyone.” And not in vain, of course - they talked about many important things. For example, about the worthless, in his opinion, Soviet system of education and upbringing (“I don’t even know which of the literate people can take on the important task of educating a person. While everyone looks at this matter with coolness, it doesn’t concern anyone. So people learn on their own - whoever succeeds. Isn’t that why there are so many holes in our state? And there are all sorts of “layers” and those who enjoy privileges in life?”).

And Selivanov writes there about corrupt writers, and about work as the basis of life, and about Moscow, which suffered so much, but remained Moscow... Selivanov also writes a lot about love.

« I did not cheat on my wife Varenka. Cheating on your wife means the same as betraying your homeland. I despise such men always and everywhere. In wartime, those who betrayed their homeland were put up against the wall. And what kind of bullet does a male husband deserve for treason?».

Selivanov calls himself "the captain who lost control of the ship". But he proudly writes that “serves the people for a modest meal, for a piece of bread”.

Expressing his thoughts about morality, he painfully reflects on eternal questions, on the main mysteries of existence, on what comes from Immanuel Kant - “ the starry sky above us and the moral law within us" Ivan Yegorovich, of course, does not refer to Kant, but his, Selivanov’s, “starry sky” is an infinitely changeable nature, rewarding people in different ways: to whom "instinct to steal", and to whom - "to good deeds."

His diary entry from 1982 is very characteristic: “ Go to the steep high bank. The horizon before you will expand. You will admire what you see. At the moment of your reflection, a huge mass of people - the people - will appear over the horizon. These people are shackled and can barely move. Where? And the harmonious system of your thoughts would immediately lose balance at the will of your heart. You would think - what is this? Where to go, where to run? From such a huge mass of people shackled? What kind of people are there in this human sea... Why are they shackled in iron shackles? I would ask each of them from the heart... Yes, you can’t break the law, you can’t approach them».

Few among others

That’s how he was, Ivan Yegorovich Selivanov, an artist, poet and sage. People who knew him were sometimes amazed - a very modest education and a speech full of dignity! For example, Selivanov said: “ Rembrandt is an exceptional phenomenon; there are few artists like Rembrandt in the world. Maybe ten people. Unlike the others, they have an expression of reality" But these words can also be applied to Ivan Yegorovich himself. There are few people like him in the world...

Andrey Bystrov,

Tivadar Kostka was born on July 5, 1853, in the mountain village of Kisseben, which belonged to Austria (now Sabinov, Slovakia) - a self-taught Hungarian artist.

His father Lasli Kostka was a doctor and pharmacist. The future artist knew from childhood that he would become a pharmacist. But before becoming one, he changed many professions—he worked as a sales clerk, attended lectures at the Faculty of Law for some time, and only then studied pharmacology.

From then on, or even earlier, he firmly intended to become an artist, for this he tried to put together a small capital, which gave him financial independence.

"Old Fisherman"

He wrote the following about himself: “I, Tivadar Kostka, in the name of renewing the world, renounced my youth. When I took initiation from the invisible spirit, I was in a secure position, I lived in prosperity and comfort. But I left my homeland because I wanted to see it rich and glorious at the end of my life. To achieve this, I traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia and Africa. I wanted to find the truth predicted to me and turn it into painting.”

It seems that the idea of ​​becoming an artist persistently haunted Tivadar Kostka.

One fine day he goes to Rome, then to Paris, where he meets the famous Hungarian artist Mihaly Munkacsi.

And then he returns to his homeland and works in a pharmacy for fourteen years, trying to achieve financial independence. Finally, a small capital has been accumulated, and one fine day he rents out the pharmacy and leaves to study, first in Munich, and then in Paris.

What follows is the principle that is so familiar to us in constructing the fate of an unrecognized genius.
He realized that the skills he would acquire during his studies did not correspond to his perception. Therefore, he abandoned his studies and in 1895 went on a trip to Italy to paint landscapes. He also traveled to Greece, North Africa and the Middle East.

In 1900 he changed his surname Kostka to the pseudonym Chontvari.

The value of his works has been questioned by many critics. They were exhibited in Europe (though without much success), but in their native Hungary, Csontvary was once and for all called crazy. Only at the end of his life did he come to Budapest and bring his paintings there. I tried to bequeath them to a local museum, but no one needed them. In 1919, Tivadar Kostka Chontvari truly went crazy and died poor, lonely, ridiculed and useless to anyone.

Having buried the unfortunate man, the relatives began to divide the property. But all that was good was pictures. And so, after consulting with the “experts,” they decided to scrap the canvases like ordinary canvas, and divide the money among themselves so that everything would be fair.

At this time, by chance or not at all by chance (a strange coincidence, however!) the young architect Gedeon Gerlotsi passed by. It was he who saved the artist’s creations, paying a little more for them than the junk dealer offered. Now the paintings of Tivadar Csontvari are kept in the museum of the city of Pecs (Hungary).

And just recently, one of the museum employees, while looking at Kostka’s painting “The Old Fisherman,” painted in 1902, had the idea to put a mirror on it. And then he saw that there was not one picture on the canvas, but at least two! Try to divide the canvas yourself with a mirror, and you will see either a god sitting in a boat against the backdrop of a peaceful, one might say, heavenly landscape, or the devil himself, behind whom black waves are raging. Or maybe there is a hidden meaning in other paintings by Chontvari? After all, it turns out that the former pharmacist from the village of Iglo was not so simple.

) in her expressive, sweeping works was able to preserve the transparency of the fog, the lightness of the sail, and the smooth rocking of the ship on the waves.

Her paintings amaze with their depth, volume, richness, and the texture is such that it is impossible to take your eyes off them.

Warm simplicity of Valentin Gubarev

Primitivist artist from Minsk Valentin Gubarev doesn't chase fame and just does what he loves. His work is incredibly popular abroad, but almost unknown to his compatriots. In the mid-90s, the French fell in love with his everyday sketches and signed a contract with the artist for 16 years. The paintings, which, it would seem, should only be understandable to us, bearers of the “modest charm of undeveloped socialism,” appealed to the European public, and exhibitions began in Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain and other countries.

Sensual realism of Sergei Marshennikov

Sergei Marshennikov is 41 years old. He lives in St. Petersburg and works in the best traditions of the classical Russian school of realistic portraiture. The heroines of his canvases are women who are tender and defenseless in their half-nakedness. Many of the most famous paintings depict the artist's muse and wife, Natalya.

The Myopic World of Philip Barlow

In the modern era of high-resolution images and the rise of hyperrealism, the work of Philip Barlow immediately attracts attention. However, a certain effort is required from the viewer in order to force himself to look at the blurry silhouettes and bright spots on the author’s canvases. This is probably how people suffering from myopia see the world without glasses and contact lenses.

Sunny bunnies by Laurent Parselier

The painting of Laurent Parcelier is an amazing world in which there is neither sadness nor despondency. You won’t find gloomy and rainy pictures from him. His canvases contain a lot of light, air and bright colors, which the artist applies with characteristic, recognizable strokes. This creates the feeling that the paintings are woven from a thousand sunbeams.

Urban dynamics in the works of Jeremy Mann

American artist Jeremy Mann paints dynamic portraits of a modern metropolis in oil on wood panels. “Abstract shapes, lines, the contrast of light and dark spots - all create a picture that evokes the feeling that a person experiences in the crowd and bustle of the city, but can also express the calm that is found when contemplating quiet beauty,” says the artist.

The Illusory World of Neil Simon

In the paintings of British artist Neil Simone, nothing is as it seems at first glance. “For me, the world around me is a series of fragile and ever-changing shapes, shadows and boundaries,” says Simon. And in his paintings everything is truly illusory and interconnected. Boundaries are blurred, and stories flow into each other.

Love drama by Joseph Lorasso

An Italian by birth, contemporary American artist Joseph Lorusso transfers onto canvas subjects he observed in the everyday lives of ordinary people. Hugs and kisses, passionate outbursts, moments of tenderness and desire fill his emotional pictures.

Country life of Dmitry Levin

Dmitry Levin is a recognized master of Russian landscape, who has established himself as a talented representative of the Russian realistic school. The most important source of his art is his attachment to nature, which he loves tenderly and passionately and of which he feels himself a part.

Bright East by Valery Blokhin