How a Russian artist tamed the obstinate star Madonna by fulfilling her order

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Illustrating literary works is a rather difficult direction in the visual arts. The vision of the writer and the artist does not always coincide in the perception of the text, which causes disagreements between them. An amazing story of cooperation happened between the Russian illustrator Gennady Spirin and American pop singer Madonna in 2004. The star, who wrote a cycle of fairy tales for children, personally selected artists for their design. She could only entrust one of them to Spirin. Why only him and at what cost his illustrations were given to Madonna - further in the review.

The fairy-tale worlds of the Russian illustrator Gennady Spirin

Children's illustration performed by the magnificent master of watercolors Gennady Spirin has long been recognized as a real work of art. The artist works on fairy tales of both classical authors, both modern ones, and, of course, folk tales that have come from ancient times. For a long creative career, his watercolors have received a huge number of awards and prizes. His original drawings of illustrations are kept in public, private and corporate collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Milan (Italy), the Princeton University Library (USA).

Critics always spoke with admiration of the work of the Russian magician-storyteller, who uses a brush instead of a magic wand.. The artist himself, from his student days, considered his idols medieval geniuses - the Russian icon painter Andrei Rublev and the Dutchman Pieter Bruegel.

Even in his youth, having perfectly mastered rather complex techniques in watercolor technique, Spirin skillfully combined it with traditional Russian painting. His painstakingly detailed paintings with many smallest details, reminiscent of the realistic landscapes of the Dutch and the paintings of the Renaissance painters, are always incredibly interesting for kids and adults alike.

It is difficult in our review to list all the literary works for which Gennady Spirin created his unique design throughout his creative career. But I would like to dwell on some of them, namely, those that were noted at international competitions and glorified the artist.

In 1983, at the Biennale in Bratislava for the book "Gnomes and the orphan Mary" - Spirin received the "Gold Apple Award". In 1990, in Austria, he was awarded the state prize for Emelya. In 1991 - the artist took the first prize "Fiera di Bologna" for "Sorochinskaya Yarmarka" by Nikolai Gogol. Since 1992, he has been awarded four gold medals from the Society of Illustrators in New York for Boot and Glass Mountain (1992), Little Swans (1993), Princess Frog (1994) and The Tale of Tsar Saltan (1996). 1994 - First Prize "Premi Internacional D'Illustracio", Barcelona, Spain for "Kashtanka".

One of the last large and well-known works of the master is the illustrations for the book of Madonna "Jacob and the Seven Thieves".

Why exactly the Russian artist Madonna entrusted the design of her book

Among the famous megastars of world magnitude, it has become fashionable, in addition to the main role, to engage in various types of art as a hobby. As you know, many celebrities are fond of painting, sculpture, but the famous American singer and actress Madonna liked writing.

So, in 2003, the star presented to the public her first children's book - "English Roses". The work was a huge success: it was on the New York Times bestseller list for four months. Inspired by her literary success, Madonna wrote several more instructive, funny and interesting books one after another. In total, six works were published in the series for preschoolers, illustrated by many famous artists: Stacy Petterson, Lauren Long, Olga and Andrei Dugin. In addition, one of the tales was illustrated by Jeffrey Fulvimari, a famous student of Andy Warhol.

The fairy tale "Jacob and the Seven Thieves", written in 2004, was the third in a series of books by the singer. Illustrations for it were created by Gennady Spirin. The artist herself was personally chosen by Madonna, and this choice was hardly accidental. For the events described in the book take place in a small town in Eastern Europe, in the 18th century. And, of course, no one could better portray that era now than Spirin. Therefore, it is not surprising that Gennady's illustrations for the Madonna's tale turned out to be so bewitching, surprisingly warm and colorful, ideally revealing the content of a wonderful book about kindness and compassion.

However, in the process of decorating the book, difficulties and disagreements arose between the performer and the customer, which Madonna had not previously encountered with other illustrators.

Having received Madonna's offer, Spirin demanded first to translate the tale into Russian. After reading it, I agreed to issue it and named my price. The amount really stunned the pop singer's lawyers - other artists got four times less! To which Gennady Konstantinovich reacted sharply:

The star had no choice but to agree to the artist's condition and sign a contract. However, as soon as Spirin began to work on illustrations, Madonna began to control each drawing of the master and give endless advice. And, since the star did not communicate directly with the artist, a lawyer came to Spirin and drew a trajectory with his finger on the paper, which Madonna's finger described, and conveyed her wishes and suggestions word for word.

Of course, the master, unable to withstand the interference in the creative process, rebelled and dictated to Madonna a lengthy letter in Russian, which was translated into English in a softer form. In it, the artist explained his plan to the star, ridiculed her advice, making it clear: The lawyers were stupefied: no one has argued with Madonna for the past 20 years. But we must pay tribute to the intuition of the star - she resigned herself. Moreover, Madonna asked to draw Spirin not eight drawings, as stipulated in the contract, but twice as many. Spirin, of course, agreed, but on condition that the payment would be the same as for the first eight jobs.

In the end, all disagreements were resolved, and the artist successfully completed the design of the book. Madonna was completely delighted with the work of the Russian master and, in addition, bought the originals of all Gennady Spirin's drawings for her work. And he, satisfied with her complaisance, painted her portrait as a gift to Madonna, making it in a fairy-tale style. Spirin portrayed the singer from a photo in the form of a young beauty galloping on a black horse-pacer against the backdrop of a medieval city. The obstinate star was flattered. Today this portrait in the form of a poster has been printed in millions of copies for the presentation of the fairy tale "Jacob and the Seven Thieves". I would also like to note that this book is published in 38 languages in more than 110 countries around the world.

After the publication of the illustrated fairy tale, when asked by journalists whether the master was satisfied with his work, Spirin replied that he was not. And when asked how he treats Madonna as a singer, he replied that he was not a fan of her, because he loved classical music.

Through the pages of the artist's biography

Gennady Konstantinovich Spirin (born 1948), a wonderful illustrator of children's books, is from the Moscow region (Orekhovo-Zuevo). He began to comprehend the basics of the profession at the art school at the Academy of Arts, and later became a student at the Art and Industrial Academy named after I. G. S. Stroganov. The future author of wonderful fairy-tale illustrations, already during his studies, developed his own unique style and created the author's recognizable handwriting. In those early years, the young artist chose watercolor as a visual medium for his creations. Spirin does not part with her to this day.

The artist began to illustrate children's books in 1979. His works immediately fell in love with young readers, and not only. The unique works of the master were noticed and quickly appreciated by foreign publishers. And it so happened by fate that in the late 80s Gennady Spirin and his family moved to Germany, and in 1991, at the invitation of two major American publishing houses Philomel and Dial Press, moved to work in the United States.

Today Gennady Spirin lives in the state of New Jersey, in the city of Princeton, together with his wife, three sons and their families. The artist liked this country quite well. However, Spirin remained Spirin in America as well. the artist said, smiling. After all, he once left Russia only to live, breathe and create freely.

Never having learned English for many years, Spirin lives in America, which has turned for him into a medieval dense forest. His house in Princeton somewhat resembles a hermit's hut, and he himself - a deeply religious person, stubborn and unsociable, with a shaggy beard - has become like a goblin.

To this day, the artist-storyteller, despite his venerable age, continues to do what he loves, illustrating several editions during the year.

Continuing the topic of illustrating fairy tales and literary works, read: How illustrators Olga and Andrey Dugin from Russia turned the German mind about illustrations. By the way, it was the Dugin's spouses who illustrated one of the six books of the Madonna.