Contribution to Russian culture of Mukhina Vera Ignatievna. Biography and work of the Soviet sculptor Vera Mukhina

Dzhandzhugazova E.A.

…Unconditional sincerity and maximum perfection

Vera Mukhina - the only woman sculptor in the history of Russian monumental art, an outstanding master with an ideal sense of harmony, honed skill and an amazingly subtle sense of space. Mukhina’s talent is truly multifaceted; she has mastered almost all genres of plastic art, from the grandiose monumental sculpture “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” to miniature decorative statues and sculptural groups, sketches for theatrical productions and art glass.

“The first lady of Soviet sculpture” combined in her work the seemingly incompatible principles - the “male” and “feminine” principles! Dizzying scale, power, expression, pressure and extraordinary plasticity of figures, combined with the precision of silhouettes, emphasized by the soft flexibility of lines, giving unusually expressive statics and dynamics of sculptural compositions.

Vera Mukhina's talent grew and strengthened during the difficult and controversial years of the twentieth century. Her work is sincere and therefore perfect, the main work of her life - the monument “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” - challenged the Nazi ideology of racism and hatred, becoming a real symbol of Russian- Soviet art, who has always personified the ideas of peace and goodness. As a sculptor, Mukhina chose the most difficult path of a monumentalist, working on a par with the venerable male masters I. Shadr, M. Manizer, B. Iofan, V. Andreev, she never changed the vector of her creative development under the influence of recognized authorities.

The civic spirit of art, which builds a bridge from ideal to life, uniting truth and beauty, became the conscious program of all her thoughts until the very end of her life. Creative success and the exceptional achievements of this remarkable woman were largely determined by her personal destiny, which, perhaps, had everything...

AND great love, family happiness and family tragedy, the joy of creativity and hard, exhausting work, triumphant victories and a long period of semi-oblivion...

Pages of life

Vera Ignatievna Mukhina was born in Latvia into a Russian merchant family on July 1, 1889. The Mukhin family was distinguished not only by its merchant acumen, but also by its love of art. Handling a lot of money, they hardly talked about it, but they argued fiercely about theater, music, painting and sculpture. They patronized the arts and generously encouraged young talents. So Ignatiy Kuzmich Mukhin, Vera’s father, who was almost bankrupt himself, bought seascape from the artist Alisov, who was dying of consumption. In general, he did good a lot and quietly, like his father - Vera’s grandfather, Kuzma Ignatievich, who really wanted to be like Cosimo de’ Medici.1

Unfortunately, Vera Mukhina's parents died early and she and older sister remained in the care of wealthy relatives. So, from 1903, the Mukhina sisters began to live with their uncle in Kursk and Moscow. Vera was an excellent student, played the piano, painted, wrote poetry, traveled around Europe, was a great fashionista and loved balls. But somewhere deep in her mind a persistent thought about sculpture had already arisen, and studying abroad became her dream. However, the relatives did not even want to hear about this. It’s not a woman’s business, the practical merchants reasoned, for a young girl to study far from her family from some Bourdelle.2

However, fate decreed otherwise... while spending the Christmas holidays with relatives on the Smolensk estate, Vera suffered a severe facial injury while riding down a hill. Pain, fear, dozens of operations instantly turned the cheerful young lady into a twitched and grief-stricken creature. And only then did the family decide to send Vera to Paris for treatment and rest. French surgeons performed several operations and actually restored the girl’s face, but it became completely different. The new face of Vera Mukhina was large, rude and very strong-willed, which was reflected in her character and hobbies. Vera decided to forget about balls, flirting and marriage. Who would love this? And the question of choosing an activity between painting and sculpture was decided in favor of the second. Vera began studying in Bourdelle's workshop, working like a convict, she very quickly overtook everyone, becoming the best. A tragic twist of fate defined her forever life path and her entire creative program. It’s hard to say whether a spoiled merchant’s daughter could turn into an extraordinary woman - Great master monumental sculpture, even if the word “sculptor” is meant only in the masculine gender.

However, ahead was the 20th century - the century of amazing speeds and the industrial revolution, a heroic and cruel era that placed a woman next to a man everywhere: at the controls of an airplane, on the captain's bridge of a ship, in the cabin of a high-rise crane or tractor. Having become equal, but not the same, men and women in the twentieth century continued their painful search for harmony in the new industrial reality. And it was precisely this ideal of searching for the harmony of “masculine” and “feminine” principles that Vera Mukhina created in her work. Her masculine face gave her creativity extraordinary strength, courage and power, and woman's heart gave soft plasticity, filigree precision and selfless love.

In love and motherhood, Vera Ignatievna, despite everything, was very happy and, despite serious illness son and difficult fate husband - the famous Moscow doctor Alexei Zamkov, her women's destiny was stormy and full like a big river.

Different facets of talent: peasant woman and ballerina

Like everyone talented person Vera Mukhina always sought and found different means of self-expression. New forms, their dynamic sharpness, occupied her creative imagination. How to depict volume, its different dynamic forms, how to bring imaginary lines closer to a specific nature, this is what Mukhina was thinking about when creating her first famous sculpture of a peasant woman. In it, Mukhina showed beauty and power for the first time female body. Her heroine is not an airy sculpture, but an image of a working woman, but this is not an ugly loose lump, but an elastic, solid and harmonious figure, not devoid of living feminine grace.

“My “Baba,” said Mukhina, “stands firmly on the ground, unshakably, as if hammered into it. I made it without nature, from my head. Working all summer, from morning to evening.”

Mukhina’s “Peasant Woman” immediately attracted the closest attention, but opinions were divided. Some were delighted, and others shrugged their shoulders in bewilderment, but the results of the exhibition of Soviet sculpture dedicated to the first ten-year anniversary of the October Revolution showed the absolute success of this extraordinary work - “The Peasant Woman” was taken to the Tretyakov Gallery.

Later in 1934, “The Peasant Woman” was exhibited at the 19th International exhibition in Venice and its first bronze cast became the property of the Vatican Museum in Rome. Having learned about this, Vera Ignatievna was very surprised that her rough and seemingly axed-out, but full of dignity and calm Russian woman took a place in the famous museum.

It should be noted that at this time Mukhina’s individual artistic style was taking shape, the distinctive features of which were monumental forms, accentuated architectonics of sculpture and the power of a plastic artistic image. This signature Mukhina style in the late twenties propelled her into the avant-garde group of muralists who were developing the design of Soviet exhibitions in different countries Europe.

Sculpture “Peasant Woman” by V.I. Mukhina (low tide, bronze, 1927)

Sketches “Peasant Woman” by V.I. Mukhina (low tide, bronze, 1927)

While working on the sculpture, Vera Mukhina came to the conclusion that for her, generalization is important in every image. The tightly built, somewhat weighted “Peasant Woman” was what it was artistic ideal those years. Later, having visited Europe under the influence of the elegant works of glassblowers from Murano, Mukhina creates a new female image- a ballerina sitting in a musical pose. Mukhina sculpted this image from an actress friend of hers. She first converted the sculpture into marble, then faience, and then only in 1947 into glass. Various artistic images and different materials contributed to a change in the aesthetic ideals of the sculptor, making her work versatile.

In the 1940s, Mukhina was passionate about design, working as theater artist, comes up with the now iconic faceted glasses. She is especially attracted to highly talented and creative people, among them the famous ballerinas Galina Ulanova and Marina Semenova occupy a special place. Her passion for ballet reveals new facets in Mukhina’s work; with the same power of expressiveness, she reveals the plastic images of such different Russian women - a simple peasant woman and famous ballerina– Russian ballet star Galina Ulanova.

Creative inspiration captured in bronze

The most romantic and inspired among all the works of Vera Mukhina was the monument to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, standing in the courtyard of the Moscow Conservatory on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street. Sculptural composition located at the main façade of the conservatory and is the dominant feature of the entire architectural complex.
This work is distinguished by originality, great musician depicted at the moment creative inspiration, although her colleagues criticized Mukhina for Tchaikovsky’s tense pose and some overload with details, but in general the compositional solution of the monument, as well as the place itself, were chosen very well. It seems that Pyotr Ilyich listens to the music pouring from the conservatory windows and involuntarily conducts to the beat.

The monument to the composer near the walls of the Moscow Conservatory is one of the most popular attractions in the capital. It gained particular popularity among conservatory students in literally took it apart. Before restoration in 2007, its openwork lattice was missing 50 note signs; according to legend, owning a note will bring good luck in musical creativity. Even the bronze pencil disappeared from the hands of the composer, but so far the same size figure in musical world didn't appear.

Triumph

But the real apogee of Mukhina’s work was the design of the Soviet pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris. The sculptural composition “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” shocked Europe and was called a masterpiece of twentieth-century art. Not every creator manages to receive universal recognition and experience such tremendous success, but the main thing is to convey the idea of the work to the viewer so that he understands it. Vera Ignatievna was able to make sure that not only the decorative attractiveness excited people, they acutely felt the very ideological content sculpture that reflected the dynamism of the great industrial age. “The impression made by this work in Paris gave me everything an artist could wish for,” these words were written by Vera Mukhina, summing up the result herself happy year of your creativity.
Mukhina’s talent is enormous and multifaceted, unfortunately, it was not fully in demand. She never managed to realize many of her ideas. It is symbolic that the most beloved of all unrealized works was the Icarus monument, which was made for the pantheon of fallen pilots. In 1944, a trial version of it was exhibited at the so-called Exhibition of Six, where it was tragically lost. But, despite unfulfilled hopes, the work of Vera Mukhina, so strong, impetuous and unusually integral, raised the world's monumental art to enormous heights, like the ancient “Icarus”, who for the first time knew the joy of conquering the sky.

Literature

Voronova O.P. Vera Ignatievna Mukhina. M., “Iskusstvo”, 1976.
Suzdalev P.K. Vera Ignatievna Mukhina. M., “Art”, 1981.
Bashinskaya I.A. Vera Ignatievna Mukhina (19989-1953). Leningrad. "Artist of the RSFSR", 1987.
http://progulkipomoskve.ru/publ/monument/pamjatnik_chajkovskomu_u_moskovskoj_konservatorii_na_bolshoj_nikitskoj_ulice/43-1-0-1182
http://rus.ruvr.ru/2012_10_17/Neizvestnaja-Vera-Muhina/ http://smartnews.ru/articles/11699.html#ixzz2kExJvlwA

1 Florentine politician, merchant and banker, owner of the largest fortune in Europe.
2 Antoine Bourdelle is a famous French sculptor.

Vera Mukhina, who became famous for her project of the sculptural group “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” in 1937, made a great contribution to monumental propaganda. In addition, the woman has other popular works that have brought her many prizes and awards.

Vera Mukhina in the workshop

Vera was born in the summer of 1889 in Riga, which at that time was part of the Livonia province Russian Empire. The girl's father, Ignatiy Kuzmich, was famous philanthropist and a businessman, her family belonged to the merchant class.

When Vera was 2 years old, her mother died of tuberculosis. The father loved his daughter and feared for her health, so he moved her to Feodosia, where she lived until 1904. There, the future sculptor received her first painting and drawing lessons in her life.

In 1904, Vera’s father also died, so the girl and her older sister were transported to Kursk. Relatives of the family lived there and took in two orphans. They, too, were wealthy people and spared no expense; they hired governesses for their sisters and sent them on trips to Dresden, Tyrol and Berlin.

In Kursk, Mukhina went to school. After graduating from high school with honors, she moved to Moscow. The guardians planned to find a groom for the girl, although this was not part of Vera’s plans. She dreamed of mastering art and someday move to Paris. In the meantime, the future sculptor began studying painting in art studios in Moscow.

Sculpture and creativity

Later, the girl went to the capital of France and there she realized that she was called to become a sculptor. Mukhina's first mentor in this area was Emil Antoine Bourdelle, a student of the legendary Auguste Rodin. She also traveled to Italy and studied the works of famous artists of the Renaissance. In 1914, Mukhina returned to Moscow.

After finishing October revolution developed a plan for the creation of city monuments and attracted young specialists for this. In 1918, Mukhina received an order to create a monument. The girl made a model from clay and sent it for approval to the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR. Vera's work was appreciated, but she never managed to finish it. Since the model was kept in a cold room in the workshop, the clay soon cracked and the work was ruined.

Also, as part of the “Leninist Plan for Monumental Propaganda,” Mukhina created sketches for the monuments to V. M. Zagorsky and the sculptures “Revolution” and “Liberated Labor.” In her youth, the girl’s character did not allow her to stop halfway; Vera carefully worked out each of her works, took into account even the smallest elements and always exceeded the expectations of others. This is how the first significant works in her career appeared in the woman’s biography.

Vera's creativity was manifested not only in sculpture. In 1925, she created a collection of elegant clothes. For sewing, she chose cheap, rough materials, including calico, weaving cloth and canvas, buttons were turned from wood, and hats were made from matting. Not without decorations. For decoration, the sculptor came up with an original ornament called the “cock pattern.” With the created collection, the woman went to an exhibition in Paris. She presented clothes together with fashion designer N.P. Lamanova and received the main prize at the competition.

In the period from 1926 to 1930, Mukhina taught at the Higher Art and Technical Institute and the Art and Industrial College.

Meaningful work V professional career women became the sculpture “Peasant Woman”. The work is dedicated to the 10th anniversary of “October”, even famous artist Ilya Mashkov spoke positively about her. The monument took 1st place at the exhibition. And after the “Peasant Woman” was transported to the Venice exhibition, it was bought by the museum of the city of Trieste. Today this work complements the collection of the Vatican Museum in Rome.

Vera made a significant contribution to the culture of the country with her creation “The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman.” The figures of a man and a woman were installed in Paris at the World Exhibition in 1937, and later transported to the author’s homeland and installed at VDNKh. This monument became a symbol of the new Moscow; the Mosfilm film studio used the image of the statue as an emblem.

Among other works of Vera Mukhina are monuments and. For several years the woman worked on creating sculptures for the Moskvoretsky Bridge, but during her lifetime she managed to implement only one project - the composition “Bread”. The remaining 5 monuments were created according to sketches after Mukhina’s death.

IN post-war years Vera created a museum consisting of sculptural portraits. The woman’s gallery was replenished with images by N. Burdenko, B. Yusupov and I. Khizhnyak. Although there are no documents confirming Mukhina’s relationship to the creation of the design of the famous faceted glass, many still attribute the authorship of this glassware to her, which Soviet years widely used in canteens.

Personal life

Vera met her first love in Paris. When the girl studied the art of creating sculpture there, she didn’t even think about building a personal life, since she was focused on gaining knowledge. But you can't order your heart.

Mukhina's chosen one was the fugitive Socialist Revolutionary terrorist Alexander Vertepov. However, the couple did not last long; in 1914, the young people separated. Vera went to visit relatives in Russia, and Alexander went to the front to fight. Living in Russia, a few years later the girl learned about the death of her lover, as well as about the beginning of the October Revolution.

Mukhina met her future husband during Civil War. She worked as a nurse and helped nurse the wounded. A young military doctor, Alexei Zamkov, worked with her. The young people fell in love and got married in 1918. They are even presented on the Internet joint photos couples. At first, the young people did not think about children. Together they had to survive the hungry post-war years, which only brought the family together and showed the true feelings of a man and a woman.

In marriage, Mukhina had a son, who was named Vsevolod. At the age of 4 the boy became very ill. After a leg injury, tuberculous inflammation formed in the wound. All the doctors whom the parents visited refused to treat him, since the case was considered hopeless. But the father did not give up, when there was no other way out, he himself operated on the child at home, which saved his son’s life. When Vsevolod recovered, he graduated and became a physicist, and later gave his parents grandchildren.

Zamkov’s career took off sharply when he created the hormonal drug “Gravidan”, which became the world’s first industrial medicine. However, only patients appreciated the doctor’s development; Soviet doctors were irritated by it. Around the same period, the commission stopped approving all new sketches of Vera, the main motive being the “bourgeois origin of the author.” Endless searches and interrogations soon brought the woman’s husband to a heart attack, so the family decided to escape to Latvia.

Before they even reached their destination, the family was intercepted and returned back. The fugitives are interrogated and then exiled to Voronezh. Maxim Gorky saved the couple's situation. The writer was treated by a man some time ago and improved his health thanks to Gravidan. The writer convinced that the country needed such a doctor, after which the family was returned to the capital and even allowed Zamkov to open his own institute.

Death

Vera Mukhina died in the fall of 1953, then she was 64 years old. The cause of death was angina, which had been tormenting her for a long time.

The sculptor’s grave is located in the second section of the Novodevichy cemetery.

Works

Monument “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” in Moscow
Sculptures “Bread” and “Fertility” in Moscow
Sculptures “Sea” in Moscow
Monument to Maxim Gorky in Moscow
Tombstones on Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow
Sculptural composition “Farhad and Shirin” in Volgograd
Monument to Maxim Gorky in Nizhny Novgorod
Sculpture "Peace" in Volgograd

The leading theme of the sculptor’s work has always been the glorification of spiritual beauty Soviet man.

"In bronze, marble, wood, and steel, images of people of the heroic era are sculpted with a bold and strong chisel - single image man and the human, marked by the unique stamp of great years," wrote art critic D. Arkin about the art of Mukhina, whose work largely determined the appearance of new Soviet art. Vera Ignatievna Mukhina was born into a wealthy merchant family. Soon after the death of her mother, father and daughter moved from Riga to Crimea and settled in Feodosia, where the future artist received her first drawing and painting lessons from a local gymnasium art teacher. Under his guidance, she copied paintings by the famous marine painter in I.K. Aivazovsky’s gallery and painted landscapes of Taurida.

Mukhina graduates from high school in Kursk, where her guardians take her after her father’s death. At the end of the 1900s, a young girl travels to Moscow, where she firmly decides to take up painting. In 1909-1911 she was a student in the private studio of K.F. Yuon. During these years, Mukhina first showed interest in sculpture. In parallel with her painting and drawing classes with Yuon and Dudin, she visited the studio of the self-taught sculptor N.A. Sinitsina, located on Arbat, where for a reasonable fee she could get a place to work, a machine and clay. Private students studied in the studio art schools, students of the Stroganov School; there were no teachers here; a model was set up, and everyone sculpted it as best they could. Often her neighbor, the sculptor N.A. Andreev, known for his recently opened monument to N.V. Gogol, came into Sinitsina’s studio. He was interested in the work of the students of Stroganov, where he taught sculpture. He often stopped at the works of Vera Mukhina, the originality of whose artistic style he immediately noted.

From Yuon at the end of 1911, Mukhina moved to the studio of the painter I.I. Mashkov. At the end of 1912 she goes to Paris. Just as at the beginning of the 19th century Russian painters and sculptors sought to go to Rome, so at the beginning of the 20th century the young generation dreamed of getting to Paris, which became the trendsetter of new artistic tastes. In Paris, Mukhina entered the Grand Chaumiere Academy, where the sculpture class was led by Emile-Antoine Bourdelle. The Russian artist studied for two years with Rodin’s former assistant, whose sculpture attracted her with its “irrepressible temperament” and genuine monumentality. Simultaneously with Bourdelle’s classes at the Academy fine arts Mukhina is taking an anatomy course. Complements art education young sculptor, the very atmosphere of the French capital with its architectural and sculptural monuments, theaters, museums, art galleries.

In the summer of 1914, Vera Ignatievna returned to Moscow. First started in August World War radically changed the usual way of life. Mukhina left sculpture, entered nursing courses and worked in a hospital in 1915-1917. The revolution returns the artist to the field of art. Together with many Russian sculptors, she participates in the implementation of Lenin's grandiose plan of monumental propaganda. Within its framework, Mukhina is creating a monument to I.N. Novikov - Russian public figure XVIII century, publicist and publisher. Unfortunately, both versions of the monument, including the one approved by the People's Commissariat for Education, perished in the sculptor's unheated workshop in the harsh winter of 1918-1919.

Vera Ignatievna participates and wins in a number of sculpture competitions, often held in the first post-revolutionary years; She completed the projects of the monuments “Revolution” for Klin and “Liberated Labor” for Moscow. The sculptor finds the most interesting solution in the design of the monument to Ya.M. Sverdlov (1923), where the allegorical male figure rushing upward with a torch in his hand personifies the selfless service to the cause of the revolution of the faithful Bolshevik-Leninist. This project is better known under the motto “Flame of the Revolution”. By the mid-20s, the master’s individual artistic style was taking shape, moving more and more away from abstract allegory and conventionally schematic solutions in the spirit of cubism. The program work was the two-meter "Peasant Woman" (1926, plaster, Tretyakov Gallery), which appeared at the exhibition of the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. The monumentality of forms, the accentuated architectonics of sculpture, and the power of artistic generalization now become the distinctive features of Mukhina’s easel and monumental sculpture.

In 1936 Soviet Union began preparations for the World Exhibition "Art, Technology and Modern Life". The author of the multi-stage Soviet pavilion, architect B.M. Iofan, proposed completing its 33-meter head pylon with a two-figure sculptural group with the emblem of our state - the hammer and sickle. The plaster sketch by Mukhina, who developed this theme together with other artists, was recognized as the best. The sculptor, who always dreamed of grandiose scales, had to lead the most difficult work of making a 25-meter statue with a total weight of about 75 tons. The sculptural frame, consisting of steel trusses and beams, was gradually covered with chromium-nickel steel plates. A group symbolizing the union of the working class and peasantry, made of the latest materials using industrial methods, conveyed, in the words of the sculptor, that “cheerful and powerful impulse that characterizes our country.” And at present, the monument “Worker and Collective Farm Woman”, the plastic power of which “is not so much in the beauty of its monumental forms, but in the rapid and clear rhythm of the volitional gesture, in the precisely found and powerful movement forward and upward,” occupies place of honor at the entrance to VDNKh in Moscow, where it was installed in 1938 with minor compositional changes.

In 1929, Mukhina created one of her best monuments - a monument to M. Gorky for the city that bears his name. The figure of the writer, slightly elongated vertically, standing on the banks of his native Volga can be read in a clear silhouette. The characteristic swing of the head completes the image created by the sculptor of the “petrel of the revolution”, who emerged from the people of a rebel writer. In the 1930s, Mukhina also worked in memorial sculpture: she especially successfully designed the tombstone of M.A. Peshkov (1935) with a carved marble full height a figure with a thoughtfully bowed head and hands tucked into his trouser pockets.

The leading theme of the sculptor’s work has always been the glorification of the spiritual beauty of Soviet people. Simultaneously with the creation in monumental sculpture of a generalized image of a contemporary - the builder of a new world, this theme was developed by the master in an easel portrait. In the 30s, heroes portrait gallery sculptor - doctor A.A. Zamkov and architect S.A. Zamkov, director A.P. Dovzhenko and ballerina M.T. Semenova. During the war years, Mukhina's portraits became more concise, all unnecessary effects were removed. The material is also changing: the previously often used marble is replaced by bronze, which, according to A.V. Bakushinsky, gives more opportunities “for constructing forms in sculpture designed for silhouette, for movement.” Portraits of Colonels I.L. Khizhnyak and B.A. Yusupov (both - 1943, bronze, Tretyakov Gallery), "Partisan" (1942, plaster, Tretyakov Gallery), for all their individuality, have the typical features of a wartime Soviet man of composure, decisive readiness to fight against the enemy.

In the post-war years, V.I. Mukhina continued to work in monumental sculpture. With a group of assistants, she translates into bronze the sculptural design of the monument to M. Gorky by I.D. Shadra (in 1951 it was opened on the square in front of the Belorussky railway station in Moscow). In 1954, after the death of Vera Ignatievna Mukhina, a monument to P.I. Tchaikovsky, on which she worked in 1948-1949, was cast and installed in front of the Conservatory building in Moscow.

"In bronze, marble, wood, and steel, images of people of the heroic era are sculpted with a bold and strong chisel - a single image of man and humanity, marked by the unique stamp of great years."

ANDart critic Arkin

Vera Ignatievna Mukhina was born in Riga on July 1, 1889 into a wealthy family andreceived a good education at home.Her mother was Frenchfather was a gifted amateur artistand Vera inherited her interest in art from him.She didn’t have a good relationship with music:Verochkait seemed that her father did not like the way she played, but he encouraged his daughter to take up drawing.ChildhoodVera Mukhinatook place in Feodosia, where the family was forced to move due to the serious illness of the mother.When Vera was three years old, her mother died of tuberculosis, and her father took her daughter abroad for a year, to Germany. Upon their return, the family settled again in Feodosia. However, a few years later, my father changed his place of residence again: he moved to Kursk.

Vera Mukhina - Kursk high school student

In 1904, Vera's father died. In 1906 Mukhina graduated from high schooland moved to Moscow. UShe no longer had any doubt that she would pursue art.In 1909-1911 Vera was a student at a private studio famous landscape painter Yuona. During these years, he first showed interest in sculpture. In parallel with painting and drawing classes with Yuon and Dudin,Vera Mukhinavisits the studio of the self-taught sculptor Sinitsina, located on Arbat, where for a reasonable fee one could get a place to work, a machine and clay. From Yuon at the end of 1911 Mukhina moved to the studio of the painter Mashkov.
At the beginning of 1912 VeraIngatyevnawas visiting relatives on an estate near Smolensk and, while sledding down the mountain, she crashed and disfigured her nose. Home-grown doctors somehow “sewed” the face onto whichFaithI was afraid to look. The uncles sent Verochka to Paris for treatment. She endured several facial plastic surgeries. But his character... He became harsh. It is no coincidence that many colleagues would subsequently dub her as a person of “tough character.” Vera completed her treatment and at the same time studied with famous sculptor Bourdelle, at the same time attended the La Palette Academy, as well as the drawing school, which was led by the famous teacher Colarossi.
In 1914, Vera Mukhina toured Italy and realized that her true calling was sculpture. Returning to Russia at the beginning of the First World War, she creates the first significant work- the sculptural group “Pieta”, conceived as a variation on the themes of Renaissance sculptures and a requiem for the dead.

The war radically changed the usual way of life. Vera Ignatievna left sculpture, entered nursing courses, and in 1915-17 worked in a hospital. Thereshe also met her betrothed:Alexey Andreevich Zamkov worked as a doctor. Vera Mukhina and Alexey Zamkov met in 1914, and got married only four years later. In 1919, he was threatened with execution for participating in the Petrograd rebellion (1918). But, fortunately, he ended up in the Cheka in the office of Menzhinsky (from 1923 he headed the OGPU), whom he helped to leave Russia in 1907. “Eh, Alexey,” Menzhinsky told him, “you were with us in 1905, then you went to the whites. You won’t survive here.”
Subsequently, when Vera Ignatievna was asked what attracted her to her future husband, she answered in detail: “He has a very strong creativity. Internal monumentality. And at the same time a lot from the man. Internal rudeness with great spiritual subtlety. Besides, he was very handsome."

Alexey Andreevich Zamkov was indeed a very talented doctor, he treated unconventionally, tried traditional methods. Unlike his wife Vera Ignatievna, he was a sociable, cheerful, sociable person, but at the same time very responsible, with a heightened sense of duty. They say about such husbands: “With him, she’s like behind a stone wall.”

After the October Revolution, Vera Ignatievna became interested in monumental sculpture and made several compositions on revolutionary themes: “Revolution” and “Flame of Revolution”. However, the expressiveness of her modeling, combined with the influence of Cubism, was so innovative that few people appreciated these works. Mukhina abruptly changes her field of activity and turns to applied art.

Mukhinsky vases

Vera Mukhinais getting closerI'm with avant-garde artists Popova and Exter. With themMukhinamakes sketches for several of Tairov's productions at the Chamber Theater and is engaged in industrial design. Vera Ignatievna designed the labelswith Lamanova, book covers, sketches of fabrics and jewelry.At the Paris Exhibition of 1925clothing collection, created according to sketches by Mukhina,was awarded the Grand Prix.

Icarus. 1938

“If we now look back and try once again to survey and compress a decade of Mukhina’s life with cinematic speed,- writes P.K. Suzdalev, - passed after Paris and Italy, then we will face an unusually complex and turbulent period of personality formation and creative searches an extraordinary artist of a new era, a female artist, formed in the fire of revolution and labor, in an unstoppable striving forward and painfully overcoming the resistance of the old world. A swift and impetuous movement forward into the unknown, despite the forces of resistance, towards the wind and storm - this is the essence of Mukhina’s spiritual life of the past decade, the pathos of her creative nature. "

From drawings and sketches of fantastic fountains („ Female figure with a jug”) and “fiery” costumes for Benelli’s drama “Dinner of Jokes”, from the extreme dynamism of “Archery” she comes to the projects of monuments to “Liberated Labor” and “Flame of the Revolution”, where this plastic idea takes on sculptural existence, form, albeit not yet fully found and resolved, but figuratively filled.This is how “Yulia” is born - named after the ballerina Podgurskaya, who served as a constant reminder of the shapes and proportions of the female body, because Mukhina greatly rethought and transformed the model. “She wasn’t that heavy,” said Mukhina. The refined grace of the ballerina gave way in “Julia” to the strength of deliberately weighted forms. Under the stack and chisel of the sculptor was not just born beautiful woman, but the standard of a healthy, harmoniously built body full of energy.
Suzdalev: ““Julia,” as Mukhina called her statue, is built in a spiral: all spherical volumes - head, chest, belly, thighs, calves - everything, growing out of each other, unfolds as the figure is walked around and again twists in a spiral, giving rise to the feeling the whole form of the female body filled with living flesh. Individual volumes and the entire statue resolutely fill the space occupied by it, as if displacing it, elastically pushing the air away from itself. “Julia” is not a ballerina, the power of her elastic, deliberately weighted forms is characteristic of a woman physical labor; this is the physically mature body of a worker or peasant woman, but with all the heaviness of the forms, there is integrity, harmony and feminine grace in the proportions and movement of the developed figure.”
In 1930, Mukhina’s well-established life suddenly breaks down: her husband is arrested on false charges, famous doctor Zamkova. After the trial, he is sent to Voronezh and Mukhina, along with her ten-year-old son, follows her husband. Only after Gorky’s intervention, four years later, did she return to Moscow. Later Mukhina created a sketch tombstone Peshkov.

Portrait of a son. 1934 Alexey Andreevich Zamkov. 1934

Returning to Moscow, Mukhina again began to design Soviet exhibitions abroad. She creates the architectural design of the Soviet pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris. Famous sculpture“Worker and Collective Farm Woman,” which became Mukhina’s first monumental project. Mukhina's composition shocked Europe and was recognized as a masterpiece of 20th century art.

IN AND. Mukhina among second-year students of Vkhutein
From the late thirties until the end of her life, Mukhina worked primarily as a portrait sculptor. During the war years, she created a gallery of portraits of medal-bearing soldiers, as well as a bust of Academician Alexei Nikolaevich Krylov (1945), which now adorns his tombstone.

Krylov’s shoulders and head grow from a golden block of elm, as if emerging from the natural growths of a thick tree. In places, the sculptor’s chisel glides over chipped wood, emphasizing their shape. There is a free and relaxed transition from the raw part of the ridge to the smooth plastic lines of the shoulders and the powerful volume of the head. The color of elm gives a special, vibrant warmth and solemn decorativeness to the composition. Krylov's head in this sculpture is clearly associated with images ancient Russian art, and at the same time - this is the head of an intellectual, a scientist. Old age and physical decline are contrasted with the strength of spirit, the volitional energy of a person who has given his entire life to the service of thought. His life is almost lived - and he has almost completed what he had to do.

Ballerina Marina Semyonova. 1941.

In the half-figure portrait of Semyonova, the ballerina is depictedin a state of external stillness and internal composurebefore going on stage. In this moment of “getting into character” Mukhina reveals the confidence of an artist who is in the prime of her wonderful talent - a feeling of youth, talent and fullness of feeling.Mukhina refuses the image dance movement, considering that the portrait task itself disappears in it.

Partisan.1942

“We know historical examples,” Mukhina spoke at an anti-fascist rally. - We know Joan of Arc, we know the mighty Russian partisan Vasilisa Kozhina. We know Nadezhda Durova... But such a massive, gigantic manifestation of true heroism, which we meet among Soviet women in the days of the battle against fascism, is significant. Our soviet woman consciously goes to great deeds. I’m not only talking about such women and heroic girls as Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Elizaveta Chaikina, Anna Shubenok, Alexandra Martynovna Dreyman - a Mozhai partisan mother who sacrificed her son and her life to her homeland. I'm also talking about thousands of unknown heroines. Isn’t any Leningrad housewife, for example, a heroine, who during the days of the siege of her hometown did she give the last crumb of bread to her husband or brother, or just to a male neighbor who made shells?”

After the warVera Ignatievna Mukhinacarries out two large official orders: creates a monument to Gorky in Moscow and a statue of Tchaikovsky. Both of these works are distinguished by the academic nature of their execution and rather indicate that the artist is deliberately moving away from modern reality.

Project of the monument to P.I. Tchaikovsky. 1945. On the left - “The Shepherd” - high relief for the monument.

Vera Ignatievna fulfilled the dream of her youth. figurinesitting girl, shrunk into a ball, amazes with its plasticity and melodiousness of lines. Slightly raised knees, crossed legs, outstretched arms, arched back, lowered head. A smooth sculpture that somehow subtly echoes the “white ballet” sculpture. In glass it became even more graceful and musical, and acquired completeness.

Seated figurine. Glass. 1947

http://murzim.ru/jenciklopedii/100-velikih-skulpto...479-vera-ignatevna-muhina.html

The only work, besides “The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman,” in which Vera Ignatievna managed to embody and bring to completion her imaginative, collective and symbolic vision of the world, is the tombstone of her close friend and in-law, the great Russian singer Leonid Vitalievich Sobinov. It was originally conceived in the form of a herm, depicting the singer in the role of Orpheus. Subsequently, Vera Ignatievna settled on the image white swan- not only a symbol of spiritual purity, but more subtly connected with the swan prince from “Lohengrin” and the “swan song” of the great singer. This work was a success: Sobinov’s tombstone is one of the most beautiful monuments in the Moscow Novodevichy Cemetery.

Monument to Sobinov at the Moscow Novodevichy Cemetery

The bulk of Vera Mukhina’s creative discoveries and ideas remained in the stage of sketches, models and drawings, replenishing the rows on the shelves of her studio and causing (albeit extremely rarely) a flow of bitternesstheir tears of the powerlessness of the creator and woman.

Vera Mukhina. Portrait of the artist Mikhail Nesterov

“He chose everything himself, the statue, my pose, and point of view. I determined the exact size of the canvas myself. All by myself", - said Mukhina. Confessed: “I hate it when they see how I work. I never allowed myself to be photographed in the workshop. But Mikhail Vasilyevich certainly wanted to write me at work. I couldn't do not give in to his urgent desire.”

Boreas. 1938

Nesterov wrote it while sculpting “Borey”: “I worked continuously while he wrote. Of course, I couldn’t start something new, but I was finalizing... as Mikhail Vasilyevich rightly put it, I started darning.”.

Nesterov wrote willingly and with pleasure. “Something is coming out,” he reported to S.N. Durylin. The portrait he painted is amazingly beautiful. compositional solution(Borey, falling from his pedestal, seems to be flying towards the artist), by nobility color range: dark blue robe, underneath white blouse; the subtle warmth of its shade competes with the matte pallor of the plaster, which is further enhanced by the bluish-lilac reflections from the robe playing on it.

In a few yearsBefore this, Nesterov wrote to Shadr: “She and Shadr are the best and, perhaps, the only real sculptors we have,” he said. “He is more talented and warmer, she is smarter and more skilled.”This is how he tried to show her - smart and skilled. With attentive eyes, as if weighing the figure of Borey, eyebrows drawn together in concentration, sensitive, able to calculate every movement of his hands.

Not a work blouse, but neat, even smart clothes - how effectively the bow of the blouse is pinned with a round red brooch. His shadar is much softer, simpler, more frank. Does he care about a suit - he's at work! And yet the portrait went far beyond the framework originally outlined by the master. Nesterov knew this and was glad about it. The portrait does not speak of intelligent skill - it speaks of creative imagination, curbed by will; about passion, holding backoccupied by the mind. About the very essence of the artist’s soul.

It's interesting to compare this portrait with photographs, made with Mukhina during work. Because, even though Vera Ignatievna did not allow photographers into the studio, there are such photographs - Vsevolod took them.

Photo 1949 - working on the figurine “Root in the role of Mercutio”. Closed eyebrows, a transverse fold on the forehead and the same intense gaze as in the portrait of Nesterov. The lips are also pursed slightly questioningly and at the same time decisively.

The same ardent power of touching a figurine, a passionate desire to pour a living soul into it through the trembling of fingers.

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Vera Mukhina was born on July 1, 1889 in Riga into a merchant family. As a child, she lived in Feodosia (1892-1904), where her father brought her after the death of her mother.

Having moved to Moscow, Vera Mukhina studied at a private art studio Konstantin Yuon and Ivan Dudin (1908-1911), worked in the sculpture workshop of Nina Sinitsina (1911). Then she moved to the studio of the painter Ilya Mashkov, one of the leaders of the group of innovative artists “Jack of Diamonds”.

She continued her education in Paris in the private studio of F. Colarossi (1912-1914). She also attended the Grande Chaumire Academy (Acadmie de la Grande Chaumire), where she studied with the famous French monumental sculptor Emile-Antoine Bourdelle. At the same time, I took an anatomy course at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1914 she traveled to Italy, where she studied Renaissance art.

In 1915-1917, during the First World War, she was a nurse in a hospital in Moscow. At the same time, from 1916 she worked as an assistant to production designer Alexandra Ekster at the Chamber Theater under the direction of Alexander Tairov.

After the October Revolution, the country adopted a plan for the so-called “monumental propaganda”, within the framework of which sculptors received orders from the state for city monuments. In 1918, Vera Mukhina completed the design of a monument to Novikov, a Russian public figure of the 18th century, which was approved by the People's Commissariat for Education. However, the clay model, which was stored in an unheated workshop, cracked from the cold.

In 1919 she joined the Monolit association. In 1924 she became a member of the "4 Arts" association, and in 1926 - the Society of Russian Sculptors.

In 1923, she participated in the design of the pavilion of the Izvestia newspaper for the first All-Russian Agricultural and Handicraft Exhibition in Moscow.

In 1926-27 she taught in the modeling class of the Art and Industrial College at the Toy Museum, from 1927 to 1930 - at the Higher Art and Technical Institute in Moscow.

By the end of the 1920s, easel sculptures “Julia”, “Wind”, “Peasant Woman” were created. In 1927, "Peasant Woman" was awarded first prize at the exhibition dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. In 1934, the sculpture was exhibited at the International Exhibition in Venice, after which it was purchased by the Trieste Museum (Italy). After the Second World War it became the property of the Vatican Museum in Rome. The bronze cast of the sculpture was installed in the Tretyakov Gallery.

In 1937, at the World Exhibition in Paris, Vera Mukhina was awarded the Grand Prix gold medal for the composition “Worker and Collective Farm Woman”. The sculpture crowned the Soviet pavilion, designed by architect Boris Iofan. In 1939, the monument was erected in Moscow near the northern entrance to the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (now VDNH). Since 1947, the sculpture has been the emblem of the Mosfilm film studio.

From 1938 to 1939, the artist worked on sculptures for the Moskvoretsky Bridge by architect Alexei Shchusev. However, the sketches remained unfulfilled. Only one of the compositions - "Bread" - was performed by the author in large size for the exhibition "Food Industry" in 1939.

In 1942 she was awarded the title "Honored Artist of the RSFSR", in 1943 - People's Artist THE USSR.

In the years Patriotic War Mukhina created portraits of Colonel Khizhnyak, Colonel Yusupov, the sculpture “Partisan” (1942), as well as a number of sculptural portraits of civilians: Russian ballerina Galina Ulanova (1941), surgeon Nikolai Burdenko (1942-43), shipbuilder Alexei Krylov (1945).

Since 1947, Vera Mukhina has been a full member of the USSR Academy of Arts and a member of the academy's presidium.

Among famous works Vera Mukhina's sculptures "Revolution", "Julia", "Science" (installed near the Moscow State University building), "Earth" and "Water" (in Luzhniki), monuments to the writer Maxim Gorky, composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky (installed near the Moscow Conservatory) and many others . The artist participated in the design of the Moscow metro station "Semyonovskaya" (opened in 1944), and was engaged in industrial graphics, clothing design, and design work.

Vera Ignatievna Mukhina - laureate of five Stalin Prizes(1941, 1943, 1946, 1951, 1952), awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the Badge of Honor, and the Order of Civil Merit.

The name of the sculptor was given to the Leningrad Higher Art and Industrial School. In Moscow, in the Novo-Peredelkino district, a street is named in her honor.