- Mikhail Shemyakin
Mikhail Mikhaylovich Shemyakin ( _ru. Михаи́л Михайлович Шемя́кин, born
4 May 1943 ,Moscow ) is aRussia n (ethnicKabard ian) painter,stage designer ,sculptor andpublisher , and a controversial representative of thenonconformist art tradition ofSt. Petersburg .Shemyakin was born to a military family and spent his early years in the
East Germany . His family returned to theSoviet Union in 1957 and he studied at the secondary school of art affiliated with theIl’ya Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad (nowSt. Petersburg ), until he was expelled for failing to conform to theSocialist Realism norms in 1971.After leaving the
Soviet Union , he settled inFrance until he moved toNew York City in 1981. While inParis ,France , he publishedApollon-77 , which was an almanac of post-Stalinist art, poetry and photography.His work often exhibits the
surreal grotesque , portraying the world as a colourfulcarnival , intimidating the viewer in its terrifyingmetamorphoses .Shemyakin is said to have led an anarchic, bohemian life, and the poet
Andrey Voznesensky described him as the "black prince of the Russian underworld".Interestingly, Shemyakin, though Russian born, signs all his works in his French name, “M. Chemiakine”, though when titled, his artwork is always in Russian. Also, the place of his signature varies from canvas to canvas either in the lower right or lower left corners, though it is always on the bottom of the canvas.
Currently, Shemyakin is in
Russia , working with directorStanislav Sokolov and the studioSoyuzmultfilm to create astop motion -animated feature film based on the tales ofE.T.A. Hoffmann , called "Gofmaniada " ( _ru. Гофманиада). The earliest that the film is expected to be released is in 2008.References
*"The Grove Dictionary of Art", by Jane Shoaf Turner (Ed.), Grove's Dictionaries. ISBN 1-884446-00-0
*Kolodzei Art Foundation
* [http://www.KolodzeiArt.org Kolodzei Art Foundation and Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art]
* [http://www.chemiakinbooks.com/htmlfiles/autobio.html Shemyakin's Official Site]Further reading
*"Mihail Shemyakin; Vol. 1: Russian Period, Paris Period; Vol. 2: Transformations, New York Period, 1986" by Mikhail Shemyakin, Mosaic Press, NY, 1986.. ISBN 0-8896-2327-9
*"M. Shemyakin: A View of the Artist Through the Media, 1962-1999", by Ilya Bass and Alan Lamb, Woollyfish Imprints, 2000. ISBN 0-9705728-0-8
*"Staging the Nutcracker", by Mikhail Shemyakin, Rizzoli, 2001. ISBN 0-8478-2346-6External links
* [http://www.russia-ic.com/culture_art/visual_arts/244/ Mikhail Shemyakin: a Man with a Scar]
* [http://www.peoples.ru/art/painter/shemiakin/interview3.html Mikhail Shemyakin at peoples.ru (many articles and interviews)] ru icon
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