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Video: Helium Korzhev. The artist of Russian trouble and his unique free realism with the prefix "SOTS"
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Helium is translated as the god of the sun. His mother told him that they wanted to call him Traktor, but it was summer and heat, therefore - Helios. Geliy Korzhev was awarded the Order of Lenin, but was never a party member. He headed the Union of Artists, but refused the salary. He did not use a company car and did not arrange exhibitions for himself. So Korzhev lived a long life without a personal exhibition in his homeland. He was only interested in work, material, he never chased fame. Korzhev closed himself off from the outside world and wrote to the last in his workshop. Geliy Korzhev knew how to masterfully convey in one gesture, in the expression on his face, what a whole generation was thinking about.
Lenin and the blind man
Geliy Korzhev regularly attended the meetings of the presidium of the Central Committee of the party, but managed to remain an independent artist and never painted on a party commission. I just couldn't do it. Only once did it. For a long time and painfully he worked out the image of the leader of the proletariat and the gray-haired blind man. I changed the composition, doubted, could not find an artistic solution. When the officials saw his sketches, the order was handed over to another artist. And the painting "Conversation" still saw the light. 10 years later. For her, he received the USSR State Prize. It's surprising, because the image of Lenin on it is completely atypical, and the artist's thought is rather evasive.
- this is how Korzhev's "reflections" on the role of the artist begin. He chose the most difficult path.
Korzhev positioned his style of realism with the prefix "social" not as socialist, but as social. Many contemporaries were greatly annoyed by his originality. The artist can be described as a dashing and unbending nature. He did not look back at the others. Most of all he treasured inner freedom. There are no battle scenes in the paintings. His heroes are people capable of doing an act, people are extraordinary. Close-up man. Often the image does not fit into the full-length canvas. Ordinary, pettiness - absent.
- the position of Geliy Korzhev.
As a creator, I saw the necessary struggle against thoughtlessness as my task. He refuses beauty in the usual sense and writes intellectual works. Korzhev rather expresses his philosophical views. Painting becomes a tool for achieving the goal, and the goal is an appeal to humanity, a warning.
Korzhev revealed the ideals and shortcomings of his time. The artist reached the peak of his creative skill in the 60s. “Lovers”, triptych “Communists”, cycle of works “Scorched by the fire of war”. He does not embellish life, but it was precisely the varnishing of reality that all social artists were engaged in. realism. And at Korzhev - poor, hungry, suffering and tired of hard work people.
Harsh style
Look, the plots are social, not socialist. “Lovers” are not a tired young couple. They drove away from the eyes of strangers. Perhaps they have nowhere to meet, or maybe they work together in the field. These lovers are atypical, but their feeling is deep, like paint on canvas.
Maimed but strong. Free spirit and "harsh style" - that is what distinguishes this Soviet artist. In the Great Patriotic War he was eager to go to the front, but he was not taken. Korzhev took his work extremely seriously. It is not a matter of satisfying creative pride. His life was subject to a strict schedule. Wake up at 8 am. All day in the workshop and only one lunch break. The family knew not to distract the artist. Money for Korzhev did not matter much. Many recounted how he was reluctant to sell paintings. He looked closely at the buyer for a long time, and often refused the deal for unexplained reasons.
is its main postulate. And Helium Korzhev fought with lies around himself and within himself. Only the truth fell on the canvas, of course, as he saw it.
In the 90s, mythical creatures - the Turliks - come to life on Korzhev's canvases. Ugly characters rage in the picture frames. An unexpected series of works as a diagnosis of reality. Time is at a kink and can hardly be healed. In 2001, he gave the first interview, in which he explained why he quickly gave up portraying the Turliks: the paintings began to be perceived as pamphlets. Too easy. And this did not suit Korzhev.
The first personal exhibition of Geliy Korzhev in Russia took place at the Tretyakov Gallery in 2017. All doubts about the significance of his work have been dispelled. But, unfortunately, the largest collection of works is in America. In the collection of Raymond Johnson in Minneapolis at the Museum of Russian Art.
- said Raymond Johnson.
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