Viewer’s notes
In the last century, Soviet schoolchildren went on cult expeditions with the whole class. No one thought about the conquests of old Europe – tolerance and pluralism. About totalitarianism – all the more so. And when the school principal recommended that the class teachers take their pets to the cinema – to “Ordinary Fascism” by M. Romm or “War and Peace” by S. Bondarchuk, it was perceived as a guide to action.
I add that the works of sculptor Alexei Leonov are presented in the Izhad exhibition hall. It would be very good if the Ufa guys, detached from another American horror and the charm of Mila Jovovich, deigned to meet them. I’m sure none of them will regret it.
Leonov… A rich surname, by the way, with various talents. Leonid Maksimovich is a classic of Russian literature, Evgeny Pavlovich is a great artist, Alexei Arkhipovich is the first person to step into outer space, an artist. By a strange coincidence, “Izhad” is on Kosmonavtov Street and the sculptor from Kiev Leonov is also called Alexei, as well as the famous astronaut.
The first impression of the exhibition: the 28-year-old sculptor is a master. Here it is necessary to take into account that he started sculpting plasticine figures at the age of two, later received a thorough professional education and now works 4-16 hours a day. Most often without rough sketches, immediately whitewashed.
During his school years, Alexei proved to be a capable mathematician. He was going to become a financier, as he did not have the money or the necessary connections to enter the prestigious National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture. True, there was talent. He came in handy. Alexei more than lived up to the expectations placed on him.
The moral criteria of art in society today are blurred or forgotten. They are very important for a young sculptor. He says that he starts working only in a good mood. To charge the sculpture with good energy. He succeeds.
Once Alexei mentioned that according to one of the legends, man was made of clay. He also sculpts his heroes out of clay: it reacts sensitively to the state of mind of the artist-creator. This “fast” material is quite consistent with his aspirations.
… Each artist, to the best of his talent, creates his own world, his own universe. Alexei Leonov’s universe is a refuge for philosophers, writers, saints, bright, gifted people.
The erudition and literacy of the Kiev sculptor command respect. They are in his works. Here Krishna and Christ, Confucius and Plato. With such comprehensiveness, it is difficult to say what worldview, what faith the demiurge Leonov himself adheres to.
Alexei recalls with humor: he was a curious child, and one day he was faced with the question of the existence of God. He asked his father, a communist, a materialist. The answer was concise: “They flew – did not see” (Leonov Sr. meant astronauts).
… Someone, most likely an art critic, wanted to describe the originality of his work with the appropriate term. This term was found in the Russian-American sociologist Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin.
“The young author,” writes an unknown biographer of Alexei Leonov, “chose an unpopular today and very complex direction, called Pitirim Sorokin’s ‘ideal art,’ which is based on spiritual synthesis, synthesis of cultures, and supersensible perception.” According to the cyclical nature of development, the predominance of the spiritual component in the art of the future is indisputable, which means that we can say with confidence that the artist is ahead of time. ”
Everything is simple and categorical. Like twice two four. Meanwhile, Pitirim Sorokin wrote that this is “not the art of one professional artist, but the work of an unnamed group of believers who communicate with God and with their own soul.” Alexei Leonov is remarkably prolific, but he is still not a team, and we know little about his like-minded artists.
But now this definition of Pitirim Sorokin roams the cities of Ukraine and Russia together with Leonov’s exhibitions. Journalists immediately rented it and reproduced it. But the work of artists very often breaks out of the direction allotted to them by men of science. The same thing happens with a master from Kiev. The territory of his ideas and incarnations is more interesting and richer than the ideational canon suggests. Does it fit into a masterfully sculpted monkey (this work is called with the subtext and irony of “The Thinker”) or Saint-Germain – a bright person with the makings of an adventurer? (He is mentioned in Tchaikovsky’s opera The Queen of Spades in his famous aria Tomsky.)
After crossing the threshold of the exhibition hall and having a brief acquaintance with its exhibits, you first decide: Alexei Leonov is a conservative. Nowadays in art, including fine arts, the ball is ruled by outrage, shock, art groups, conceptualists… In Berdyansk, Ukraine, a monument to a toad (symbol of greed) has been erected, in Odessa – a chair (based on the novel by Ilf and Petrov), in Moscow – processed cheese “Friendship”. The West, of course, surpassed us here as well.
To engage the viewer at any cost – this is the task set by many artists. One sculptor rips off a person’s flesh and shows us a skeleton in different situations. Another sculpts edible heads from the dough. The third reproduces the city dump. Here it is – modern, relevant art. Alexei Leonov with his saints, philosophers, heroes of myths – of course, a conservative.
Or maybe he is an avant-garde? When an artist appears in the vast space occupied by assertive kitsch producers, various installations and performances, who recreates the images of the titans of the spirit, paving bridges from the depths of the distant past in the 21st century, tomorrow, he is a pure avant-garde.
… In 1920, speaking at the Third Komsomol Congress, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin called on young people to enrich “their memory with the knowledge of all the riches that humanity has produced.” Good, always relevant advice. Alas, few were able to use them.
Our relationship with the history, culture and heritage of the past is complex, to put it simply, none at all. The guide at this exhibition is not a superfluous person.
However, to emerge from the vanity of everyday life and plunge, at least for an hour, into the world of harmony and beauty, not knowing who Leda is or who stole Europe, is also great. Even an inexperienced viewer will easily understand that Leonov’s works are high art, they do not offend the eye. Their impact on the viewer is beneficial.
The sculptor has a lot of borrowings, compositions based on famous paintings. Having lost their birthright, they are obviously not perceived as sharply and freshly as the originals. But the sculptor Leonov goes for it consciously: it is important for him to speak on a given topic.
We considered the cycle of works depicting Sergius of Radonezh (in the world of Bartholomew) with special passion, because one of the most famous paintings associated with his name belongs to our compatriot M. Nesterov. This is “The Vision of the Boy Bartholomew.”
Alexei Leonov’s Sergius of Radonezh is different: out of this world, peaceful, focused, wise. More than others crashes into the memory of “St. Sergei Radonezhsky, host of Andrei Rublev. ” This sculpture is symbolic and meaningful, it must be seen.
Leonov’s Greeks and Italians, in my opinion, are cold, except, perhaps, the shrill Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, the artist-thinker-poet, caught in a moment of intense contemplation.
Oriental sages are colorful, attractive exotics.
It is thought that sculptures born of the artist’s knowledge and skill lose out to such as the epic “Boyan” and the expressive “Young Taras Shevchenko”. Here one feels authenticity, native soil: music, live speech, culture of life – all close, familiar, assimilated as a child with mother’s milk.
The allegories are wonderful. In them, it seems, the author shows himself with the greatest relief. In the fired clay (fireclay) its sensual impulse remains, not having time to cool down, traces of enlightenment are noticeable.
“Idyll” is amazingly good – a touching union of wildlife (mother bear) with a human cub. In this deep and large-scale (rather than in size) sculpture, Alexei Leonov expressed himself most fully and frankly.
Thanks to the Bashkir branch of the international public organization “League for the Protection of Culture” and the exhibition hall “Izhad” for introducing us to the work of this master. The exhibition of his works will remain in Ufa until the end of October.
Юрий КОВАЛЬ
29.09.2010
