A Retrospective Catalogue of the Works of Anatoly Ivanovich Shugrin
Some articles from the catalogue are presented below
Preface
NORTON DODGE
Foreword
VLADIMIR SIROTA
Anatoly Ivanovich Shugrin
VLADIMIR SIROTA
Memories of My Teacher
VALENTINA SHAPIRO
Preface
NORTON DODGE
ANATOLY SHUGRIN is one of the few Russian artists whose active, creative life spanned the hazardous Stalin years without being crippled, crushed, or repressed. Born in 1906, he developed his own expressive, personal style before Stalin's repression of artistic creativity and individuality in the late 1920s and 1930s laid a heavy hand on Soviet art. During the 1930s through the early 1950s, Shugrin's style continued to develop and evolve. Working in isolationpainting only for himself - Shugrin passed through phases of development reminiscent of various schools or trends in art which appeared in the West during these same years. His interesting uses of color, form, and surreal images were distinctive and impressive by any standard. His work during this period stood almost alone in Russia; it was unknown to all but a few friends. We, here in America, are now fortunate to see Shugrin's art for the first time in a comprehensive exhibition, and to properly appreciate its color, verve and strength.
Foreword
VLADIMIR SIROTA
We offer this catalogue to our readers with anticipation and a great deal of excitement, because only now on the threshold of his 80th birthday Anatoly Shugrin is finally being introduced to his viewers. This has been the almost hopeless dream of his entire life.
This catalogue is the first partial publication of Shugrin's art. It is also the first time that anything has been published about this unknown artist whose long and prolific life has all the marks of a "pilgrim's progress." We are attempting here as well to acquaint the viewer with the unique world of this artist and with some details of his biography.
This publication was especially prepared for the first exhibition of Shugrin's work, Anatoly Ivanovich Shugrin: A Retrospective Exhibition, 19191950, in Washington, D.C. I want to acknowledge the many people who helped to prepare this catalogue and to organize the premiere exhibition at the Goldman Fine Arts Gallery, at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington. In preparation of both book and exhibition I want to thank the curator of the exhibition and Director of the Goldman Fine Arts Gallery, Susan W. Morgenstein, and the Directors, staff, and volunteers of the Center. For constant spiritual and linguistic support, I want to acknowledge Michael Gnoutcheff, Rev. Victor Potapov, and Norton Dodge.
Anatoly Ivanovich Shugrin
VLADIMIR SIROTA
ANATOLY IVANOVICH SHUGRIN is a very modest, sensitive man and an extremely private person. This explains why he is reluctant to talk about his thoughts and experiences, doing so in a very dry and modest manner.
He was born in 1906 in Moscow, Russia, into a poor family. His father, a barely literate clerk, worked for a merchant who owned an open market stall. His mother, however, was educated, and he talked about her with much warmth, though very sketchily and with few details.
The desire to express life in picture-form started early in the future artist's childhood. In 1919, he became a student of the Art Studio named after Lunacharsky. There he joined the class of the painter Nikolai Mikhailovich Grigoriev who, according to Shugrin, was a very sensitive and attentive teacher and who offered much to his students. Grigoriev was one of the organizers and directors of the Art Studio. All wishing to learn were accepted, regardless of their age, prior schooling, or cultural level.
In time, the studio became a "Technicum." Later and to the present time, it developed into a well known, prestigious art school named after the year "1905." The Technicum offered scholarships which made things easier for poor students. Shugrin finished the Technicum in 1930. Besides Grigoriev, Shugrin was greatly indebted to Mikhail Ksenofonovich Sokolov who was his teacher during his last years in the Technicum. Shugrin was always an excellent student. His teachers recognized and appreciated his love for art as well as his application, his seriousness, his independent creativity, and his total immersion in his studies. He was also a good student in the field of humanities reading widely in history and literature. He invented whole fantastic worlds as subjects for his paintings. He never wrote them down but illustrated these worlds in great detail. This explains the illustrative quality of some of his works.
After graduating from the Technicum, he worked extensively in drawing and painting. Showing mostly his graphics, he took part in the following exhibits: "Artists of the RSFSR of the last 15 years," 1932; "Young Artists Exhibit," 1934; and "Moscow Association of Artists (OMKH)." He joined the OMKH just after finishing his studies at the Technicum. This association included a large proportion of famous Soviet painters of the older generation: A. Lentulov, I. Mashkov, Krilov, A Semerkin, A. V. Kuprin, A. Shev-chenko, and others. Shugrin was one of the younger members of the association. As he was well liked and accepted, he was allowed to exhibit as a member of OMKH. In 1932, the society and various separate groups of artists were all united into one organizationThe Moscow Union of USSR Artists (MOSSKH). Shugrin was engrossed in "non-official" art, thus he did not hurry to join MOSSKH. (He was afraid to.) Nevertheless, he worked hard and became a member of the Moscow Brotherhood of Artists (MTKh).
The MTKh leaned more toward commercial than artistic endeavors. He stayed busy by accepting painting and graphics commissions fulfilling creative needs by painting for himself.
Very early in his career, his own style and creative spark emerged. Even his earliest pieces were impressive in their originality and in their unique approach to solving problems.
During World War II (1940-45 ), Shugrin served on active duty with the Soviet Red Army. Because of his poor hearing, he was not stationed in combat zones. After being demobilized, he returned to Moscow and joined MOSSKh. There he worked very hard. He also taught with a great deal of pleasure in an art high school. During one school year, he taught in the former "Stroganov School."
Among his students he especially approved of Valya Shapiro. He considered her very talented and able. He felt there was little he could do for her. "She does everything by herself; she is self-sufficient! She has inborn taste, an inordinate feeling and an affinity for true culture. She is totally immersed in her work." Teaching brought Shugrin a lot of satisfaction and an opportunity to further his knowledge.
After the War Shugrin worked very hard, mostly putting finishing touches to works begun befoie 1941, and attempting to restore and/or recreate what was lost or damaged during the war. He also created a large number of sculptures which seem to jump out from his paintings and drawings and maintain a spiritual bond with them. Shugrin worked on many pieces simultaneously, seldom completing single works from beginning to end. This is why he did not date any of his works. Usually, he did not name his creations feeling that it might limit their scope. His work after 1935 was not exhibited in public shows and therefore it had undeservedly few spectators. He continues to work at a very slow pace even now, finishing works started earlier as well as creating new ones.
Anatoly Shugrin became one of my patients several years ago. He and his world of art captivated me from the start; I became a frequent visitor, ardent viewer, friend and patron. One of my missions in life became clear; I had to safeguard his work and to share it with as many people as possible.
When I came to Washington, D.C., Maestro Mstislav Rostropvich expressed great excitement and deep feeling at the sight of Shugrin's paintings which he knew from Russia. "It seems to me that the Russian artist Anatoly Shugrin, who lives in Moscow, is an exceptionally absorbing artist," Maestro Rostropovich wrote after his visit. "I feel that it would be extremely exciting to exhibit this collection and to do so now on the eve of the artist's forthcoming birthday."
The Very Reverend Victor Potapov, rector of St. John the Baptist Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Washington, D.C., reacted to Shugrin's other-worldly paintings: "Anatoly Shugrin's art is unique and captivating. It also seems to be uplifting and spiritual in the sense that it shows optimism, notwithstanding life in a world bent on self-destruction. His paintings and sculptures have an ethereal, mystical quality, yet they are rendered in a pure classical manner."
Another visitor, John Glad, Secretary of the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, commented on the "strong and original images" of Shugrin and the importance of making Shugrin's work known in America.
Memories of My Teacher
VALENTINA SHAPIRO
To the best of my recollection, Shugrin started his painting career as a member of an artist group called the "Jack of Diamonds." Just before World War II, the Tretiakov Gallery offered to buy one of his drawings. It was a small black India ink drawing of musketeers, with a white cross scratched near the top. But, as he used to say, the monster Hitler came on the scene and ruined his first business venture.
When the war started, Shugrin joined the National Guard. While he was away in the army, his old sick mother used most of his early works for firewood. He wrote her to do so as she had no other way to keep warm during the bitter winter. And so a lot of his early work completed before he was thirty, perished.
He said that he was greatly influenced by two painters. Not in his style, but in his approach to the art of painting, they were two of the great Russian artistsKuznetsov and Sinyezubov. Both of them were truly dedicated, fanatical servants of art. Sinyezubov lived on two potatoes a day, working like the devil from morning till night. Shugrin used to say, "Valyechka, I am nothing but their pale shadow."
In general Shugrin is a man of a different century. He would say to me, "Valyechka, we are a dying race of men, like mammoths. But you can consider yourself lucky to have met one." Truly, I have never met anyone like him before or since.
When I first met him, he and his wife used to live in a horrible hovel, a small miserable room in a communal apartment. Something almost as awful as the room I used to share with my mother. The whole room was occupied by shelves filled with paintings, statues, etc. Not only was there no room to move around, there was not enough free space to even spit!
In the beginning Shugrin used to work in the Moscow Association of Artists. He had to work there to make a living like anyone else. He told me that while working there, a tragicomic thing happened to him. He and a friend were commissioned to do a portrait of Molotov. You know, one of those immense portraits on a huge sheet to hang outside a government building during a national holiday. This is done by taking a photograph, dividing it into squares, then with charcoal, drawing huge squares on the sheet. Then each large square is filled by painting on it the same shapes as on the same small square. They finished Molotov's "mug" and hung it on the building. The next morning quite early, Shugrin decided to check his "masterpiece." To his horror, the rain during the night, washed enough of the paint off to reveal the black crosses of the charcoal squares. It now appeared that Molotov was behind bars! Luckily no one saw it and they were able to fix everything. Otherwise, it was prison.
When I would visit him, I noticed that he liked to play with matchboxes. He would take two boxes and slide one on top of the other and say, "Look, Valya, look at the changing dynamics, at the alteration of the composition."
Shugrin would say that an artist must be able to paint like Rembrandt, like Leonardo or Raphael.
Yes, he was a master painter. Even during his student days, even during his association with the "Jack of Diamonds" circle, he was known as the "mathematician." And truly, when you look at his work, one is surprised at his mastery. You feel total spontaneity. And yet you see that each dot is calculated with precision and placed in precisely the right place.
He liked to say, "What is most important are empty spaces." "To place a dot on an empty sheet of paper in such a way that it makes the sheet sing out is an act of greatness." The further I progress in my own work, the more I feel and understand how right he was.
He often said, "Look at the great masters." Let us turn to Vermeer, who has a painting, I believe, about matchmaking. Almost half of the painting is a black velvet tablecloth. Just a plain dull black surface. And yet, that fantastic fellow, Vermeer, using one judicious stroke of the brush, put a mark on that dull black cloth and made it sing."
It is very hard for me to specify exactly why I love him. All I know is that among the most famous contemporary painters, there is nothing I ever saw that resembles his work. It is hard to express what it is. It may be his spirituality. He reminds me, in some way, of Yasha Heifetz playing the violin. He had something which seems to be totally lost today. He is so diverse, his paintings are all very different, as well as are his periods and styles. And yet, you always see that one same face. Most importantly, he has his own worlda very different world, as if he has created his own cosmos. Nowhere have I ever seen such a world. No one else seems to have it. Perhaps only among the great old masters such as Vermeer would this be possible.
All I can say is that when I came to see him, he knew how "to look." He would take my drawings and would look at them for days. He would then analyze each painting for hours and strip everything to the bone. He would criticize and scold. "Look with these arms, this face is wrong," etc.
At this point I would cringe and want to fall through the floor. Then he would close the portfolio and say, "Anyway, do not listen to an old fool. You are doing well. However, you know, you are a 20th Century person whereas I am a man of the 19th Century. And I will go to heaven for sure while you will inevitably go to hell."
But one day he looked at one of my drawings and started to cry saying, "Valyechka, you also will go to heaven." That particular drawing got lost. I do not know who took it; it just disappeared.
I feel that his art cannot be specifically classified as either contemporary or non-contemporary. His art is rather "other-worldly." His paintings seem to be drawn by a man not bound by time and space. He was always easily wounded and very sensitive. The way he cried over birds with broken wings while attempting to fix them is the very way he comes out in his paintings. His "weltshmerz" (world weariness) is positive.
He maintained that the drawing is all for an artist. What is painting but drawing with its proportions, configurations, balance, color and the very mass of color? What is sculpture? It is also a drawing with forms. In essence, drawing is all. Such is Shugrin's formula.
Shugrin stated that there are fewer people who have a feeling for drawing, who have a "perfect pitch for drawing," than there are people with a sense of color. In general, there are many more good painters than there are good draftsmen. There are almost no men "born" with a natural ability to draw.
Shugrin likes to play with his palette, composing different color tones. This is obvious in his paintings. Some of his yellows seem red. His blues are at times really browns. The interplay of strong colors and weak ones drastically changes certain color tones. This creates a feeling of restlessness. This interplay of colors produces an unreal, special world which, combined with masterful drawing, gives Shugrin's painting a disturbing and evocative quality, an almost haunting one.
His poor miserable existence, the belief that all his work will probably only reach the garbage heap paradoxically produced a high degree of purity. There is not one vulgarity, nor a single compromise. Everything he created is truly created on the highest level of art. This is rare today. His art is unique and fine as the best masterpieces created at the time of ancient icon painters.