Ernst unknown works with titles. Ernst unknown. Tombstone monument to N. Khrushchev

April 9 marks the 85th anniversary of the famous sculptor Ernst Neizvestny. Unknown's paintings are exhibited in best museums peace. Among the famous sculptural works of Neizvestny are the monuments “Tree of Life”, “Memory of the Kuzbass Miners”, “Renaissance”, “Mask of Sorrow”, etc.

Sculptor, artist, philosopher Ernst Iosifovich Neizvestny was born on April 9, 1925 in Sverdlovsk (Ekaterinburg) in the family of a doctor (former white officer) Iosif Neizvestny and biologist and children's poetess Bella Dizhur, who were repressed in the 1930s.

Until 1942, Ernst Neizvestny attended a school for artistically gifted children in Sverdlovsk. In 1943 he volunteered for the Red Army; was sent to Kushka, on the border of Iran and Afghanistan, to the First Turkestan Military School, after which he was included in the 860th Guards Airborne Division, 45th Guards Airborne Regiment. Unknown served in airborne troops 2nd Ukrainian Front.

On April 22, 1945, he was seriously wounded in Austria, declared dead and posthumously awarded the Order of the Red Star, which was awarded to him 25 years later.

The most significant works of the Unknown Soviet period are “Prometheus” in the Artek pioneer camp (1966) and “Lotus Flower”, built at the Aswan Dam in Egypt (1971).

In 1976, Ernst Neizvestny left the USSR “due to aesthetic disagreements with the regime,” as he himself determined the reasons for his departure. First he emigrated to Switzerland, and then, in 1977, he moved to New York. There, Neizvestny continued to work on his plans, taught, and lectured on art and philosophy at Columbia and Harvard universities.

In 1983, Ernst Neizvestny was elected professor of humanities at the University of Oregon (USA). He is a professor of philosophy at Columbia University, in 1986 he was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the New York Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1989 Neizvestny became a member of the European Academy of Arts, Sciences and Humanities.

Beginning in 1962, and especially during the decades of emigration, Ernst Neizvestny gave theoretical articles and lectures, published blank verses figuratively commenting on his visual work (the collection “Fate”).

In the 1980s Unknown successfully exhibited at the Magna Gallery in San Francisco, commissioned by which he created the series Man through the Wall, dedicated to the collapse of communism.

In 1989, he came to Moscow and gave lectures on culture at Moscow State University. He was invited to design a monument to the victims of the Holocaust in Riga and a monument to the victims of Stalinism in Vorkuta. In 1990, he designed a monument to Andrei Sakharov.

In 1991, Ernst Neizvestny came to Russia to work on a memorial to the victims of Stalinism in Magadan, Vorkuta and Yekaterinburg.

Ernst Neizvestny created sculptural compositions that decorated many cities around the world. This is a 970-meter relief - the facade of the Institute of Electronics of the city of Zelenograd, the sculpture "Exodus and Return" in Elista (dedicated to the deportation of Kalmyks), "Golden Child" in Odessa, in 1996. Unknown finished his monumental (15 m high) work "Mask" Sorrow" dedicated to the victims of repression in the Soviet Union. This sculpture was installed in Magadan.

In December 1997, Ernst Neizvestny's sculpture "The Great Centaur" was donated to the UN European Headquarters in Geneva and installed in the Ariane Park, which surrounds the Palais des Nations.

In April 2000, the artist’s first sculpture, “Renaissance,” was unveiled in Moscow. In 2003, in Kemerovo on the banks of the Tom River, the monument “Memory of the Kuzbass Miners” by Ernst Neizvestny was unveiled.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

Conquering granite. A granite monolith of unique dimensions, homogeneous structure, not affected by cracks, is national treasure. But under one condition: by the will, talent and perseverance of the sculptor, this stone must be transformed into a cultural phenomenon, and become an invaluable testimony to the history of the people.
Granite requires motivation and prophecy from the master. A product made of granite is eternal; in any case, it can overcome fire, wind, victory and defeat. Monumental sculpture is a message to the future, it is an embodied overcoming of time.

But the most powerful project, due to the special quality of granite from the Siberian quarry, remained unfulfilled.
And this project is associated with the name of the sculptor Ernst Neizvestny.
Reading Wikipedia. Born in 1925 in the family of a doctor Joseph Moiseevich Neizvestny And Bella Abramovna Dizhur ( 1903 — 2006 ), who wrote popular science books for children.
WITH 1939 By 1942 gg. participated in All-Union competitions and attended a school for artistically gifted children, first in Leningrad, and during the war years in Samarkand. IN 1942 At the age of 17, Unknown was drafted into Red Army . Served in the airborne forces 2nd Ukrainian Front . At the end Great Patriotic War April 22 1945 g. in Austria was seriously wounded, declared dead and awarded “posthumously” for his heroism Order of the Red Star .
After the war, he taught drawing for some time in Suvorov School in Sverdlovsk, in 1946 — 1947 gg. studied at the Academy of Arts in Riga , and then, in 1947 — 1954 gg. - V and at the Faculty of Philosophy Moscow State University .
IN 1955 becomes a member of the sculptors section of the Moscow branch Union of Artists of the USSR and up to 1976 is engaged artistic activity in USSR.
Sculptural compositions of the Unknown, expressing his expression and powerful plasticity, were often composed of parts of the human body. He preferred to create sculptures in bronze , but his monumental sculptures were created from concrete . The most famous monumental works of Neizvestny are combined into a cycle, on which Neizvestny worked with 1956 . The best work This cycle is the sculpture “Tree of Life”. The most significant work of Neizvestny during the Soviet period is “Prometheus” in the All-Union Pioneer Camp Artek ( 1966 ).

IN1976 Unknown emigrates toZurich (Switzerland), and in1977 moves toNY , USA.
In the 1980s, Unknown exhibited many times at Magna Gallery in San Francisco . His exhibitions were a great success. Commissioned by Magna Gallery in the late eighties, Neizvestny created the cycle “Man through the Wall,” which was dedicated to the crashcommunism. During these same years, Neizvestny lectured at universitiesOregon in the city of Eugene and inBerkeley University VCalifornia. IN1994 created a figurineTEFI. INIn 1996, Neizvestny completed his monumental (15 meters high) work “Mask of Sorrow”, dedicated to the victims of repression in the Soviet Union. This sculpture is installed inMagadan. Unknown lives inNew York and works inColumbia University. He visits oftenMoscow, where he celebrated his 80th birthday.
IN Uttersberg ( Uttersberg, Sweden ) there is a museum of sculptures of the Unknown. Several sculptures crucifix created by Unknown, acquiredpope John Paul II for the museum Vatican.
One of latest works Ernst the Neizvestny - monument Sergei Diaghilev, installed in Perm.
In accordance with the Presidential Decree Russian Federation, State Prize of the Russian Federation 1995 awarded to “Unknown Ernst Iosifovich, sculptor, for a series of sculptural works in bronze. Foreign honorary member Russian Academy of Arts .
It seemed that all the necessary conditions for implementing a large-scale project strangely converged here in Yekaterinburg. The fate of the sculptor Ernst Neizvestny is connected with Sverdlovsk. Firstly, his parents occupied a prominent position in the circle of the city's intelligentsia. Secondly, young Ernst taught drawing at the Suvorov School. Secondly, he created his first sculptural experiments in the best traditions of socialist realism (see the exhibition at the Museum of History of Yekaterinburg).

But the most important and painful project for us of a mature master remained unfulfilled on the Ural soil.
The new Russia, born in pain and blood, said goodbye to its Soviet past, but could not forget it. A sign and symbol of such bitter memory was the project of Ernst Neizvestny.
And the mighty body of granite, uncovered by the Siberian quarry, promised the future feat of the sculptor.
The monolithic block needed to create the key compositions of the sculpture has already been selected.
The master's talent was commensurate with granite.
Granite was commensurate with the scale of the tragedy of the people and the authorities.
The granite was commensurate with the fate of the master.
And yet this project was not implemented.
An unbearable project. “...In 1987, in the wake of general repentance for the Stalinist regime in Magadan, they decided to perpetuate the memory of the victims of Stalinist repressions. Moscow blessed the project and turned to Ernst Neizvestny, who had long since moved to the United States. The sculptor agreed to develop a model of the monument and proposed the idea of ​​the “Masks of Sorrow” triptych. According to his idea, the monument was to be located in three cities, the unofficial capitals of the Gulag. The first part is in Vorkuta, the second in Magadan, and the third in Sverdlovsk (the artist’s hometown), at the junction of Europe and Asia. The idea was approved.
In 1990, the Sverdlovsk City Executive Committee signed an agreement with Ernst Neizvestny to prepare a model. The time was short of money, and the sculptor refused a fee of seven hundred thousand dollars during the work. He proposed to use this money for the production of the fifteen-meter monument itself. A three-meter plaster model was made and transferred to the ownership of the city” Marina VOROPAYEVA.
Another quote: "MASK OF GRIEF" (Chel. ru): As soon as the era of change began in the USSR, Unknown came to his homeland. He comes for a while: to see the changes with his own eyes, to meet with friends. Ernst Iosifovich has an idea to install monuments in the “Triangle of Sorrow” - Yekaterinburg - Vorkuta - Magadan in memory of the victims of Stalin’s repressions. At first, in the Urals, the offer was accepted with understanding and gratitude: the son of Russia gives hometown your work. “Mask of Sorrow” is huge in height (up to 17 meters ) face-mask... of a grieving person. And the tears rolling down are depicted in the form of human skulls: every tear is a human destiny. In the workshops of the Sverdlovsk Art Fund, work began under the direction of the author. But…"

Mask of Sorrow. Europe Asia
“The scale model of the monument “Masks: Europe-Asia” is a double-sided composition consisting of two crying masks (European and Asian faces), one of which faces west, the other faces east. The sculpture was conceived back in the 50s as part of a triptych in memory of the victims of political repression.” (Natalia Potapova).
In the hall of the Yekaterinburg History Museum, plaster “masks of grief” are placed on a pedestal - a project for a monument to victims of totalitarian violence. The main idea of ​​this creation is that if one person dies (or rather, dies at the hands of executioners, as often happened in the late 30s of the last century), his entire chain, his family, also dies. Ernst Neizvestny himself calls the sculpture “Monument to Communist Utopia.” It was expected that the composition would become a project for a monument to victims of political oppression.” (Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg)

Granite monoblocks: unrealized monuments

« Monuments have already opened in Vorkuta and Magadan (only in Magadan! E.N). By the way, the author refused any fees for these works. And the three-meter model of “Masks: Europe-Asia” languished in the Yekaterinburg Art Fund. They cut it into pieces to make it easier to carry it into the basement” (M.V.)
Thus, “the initiative was not supported by society at the turn of the 90s; there was a myth that an “American Jew” did not have the right to build such monuments with Soviet money. As a result, funds were allocated by Moscow, but Yekaterinburg never received them. The issue of creating the monument is still unresolved. Its model will now be kept in the Yekaterinburg History Museum.” (Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg)

Ernst Neizvestny. His death died in the war
He lives his seven lives:
First. Children's life and youth in the family
Second. Creative life socialist realist
Third. Training at a military school
Fourth. The life and death of a lieutenant in war
Fifth. The life of a Soviet dissident
Sixth. The life of a modern modernist sculptor, who not only explains modern art N.S. Khrushchev, but also creates a monument to his grave
Seventh. Finally, he became worldwide famous master, and will always live.

1. World records of the Unknown
2. Unknown in exile
3. Sculptures of the Unknown in Post-Soviet Russia

He went through the horrors of war, experienced the disfavor of the authorities and was forced to leave his homeland. Ernst Neizvestny created monumental works that can be seen today in different countries world - in Russia and Ukraine, the USA and Egypt, Sweden and the Vatican.

Order of the Patriotic War "posthumously"

Ernst Neizvestny was born in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) in the family of the doctor Joseph Neizvestny and the poetess Bella Dijour. In his childhood and youth, he had to hide his origins, since his father was a White Guard, and his grandfather, Moisei Neizvestnov, was once a wealthy merchant.

My father’s generation, and I, too, when I was young, lived in a complete lie. Even in the family they tried to hide their origins. And it turns out that our last name is not Neizvestny, but Neizvestnov. Father changed the last two letters, being a wise man, and, as I understand now, these two letters, in general, saved us.

Ernst Neizvestny

As a schoolboy, Neizvestny participated in All-Union competitions children's creativity. And in 1939 he entered the Leningrad art school at the Academy of Arts. The school was evacuated to Samarkand, from here the young sculptor, despite poor health, volunteered for the army.

During the fighting, he was seriously wounded - his colleagues even thought that he had died. But in the basement where the bodies were kept before burial, the Unknown came to his senses: the wound turned out to be non-fatal. However, Ernst Neizvestny was mistakenly awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree, posthumously. After being wounded, he could hardly walk on crutches, more than a year couldn't sculpt. For some time after the war, he taught drawing at a military school in Sverdlovsk.

High relief “Yakov Sverdlov calls the Ural workers to an armed uprising” (fragment). Sculptor Ernst Neizvestny. 1953. Photo: proza.ru

Sculpture “Yakov Sverdlov introduces Lenin and Stalin.” Sculptor Ernst Neizvestny. 1953. Photo: Tatyana Andreeva / rg.ru

In 1946, Ernst Neizvestny entered the Academy of Arts in Riga, and a year later - immediately to the Moscow art institute named after V.I. Surikov and to the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov. The works of student Neizvestny already during his studies became museum exhibits. In his third year, he made the sculpture “Yakov Sverdlov introduces Lenin and Stalin” and the high relief “Yakov Sverdlov calls the Ural workers to an armed uprising” for the Sverdlovsk Museum. And Ernst Neizvestny’s diploma work - the sculpture “Kremlin Builder Fyodor the Horse” - was bought by the Russian Museum.

Already in these years, the first problems with censors appeared: experimental and unofficial things had to be hidden.

Disagreements with socialist realism at the institute arose primarily among front-line soldiers. Many of these young people were even communists, but their experiences, their life experience did not correspond to the smooth painting of socialist realism. We fell out of the generally accepted not theoretically, but existentially; we needed other means of expression. I was destined to be one of the first, but far from the only one.

Ernst Neizvestny

The sculptor was criticized by newspapers, they talked to him “in their offices” and even beat him on the street. However, his fellow artists supported him, and in 1955 Neizvestny became a member of the Moscow branch of the Union of Artists.

Memorial monument for Nikita Khrushchev

In the late 1950s - early 1960s, Neizvestny created the cycle “War is” and “Robots and Semi-Robots,” sculptural compositions “ Nuclear explosion", "Effort", other sculptures, graphic and paintings. In 1957, Ernst Neizvestny participated in the VI World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow and won all three medals. He was forced to refuse the gold medal for the sculpture “Earth”.

Composition “Atomic Explosion”. Sculptor Ernst Neizvestny. 1957. Photo: uole-museum.ru

Monument to Nikita Khrushchev on Novodevichy Cemetery. Sculptor Ernst Neizvestny. 1975. Photo: enacademic.com

When was it announced international competition to the monument above the Aswan Dam, I sent my project through different channels, so that they would not know that it was me. Packages are opened. The Soviet representatives are falling like bowling pins: an undesirable character has won first place. But there is nothing left to do, since the world press is printing my name. It also appears in Pravda. Our architects rushed into this gap and quietly gave me a lot of orders.

Ernst Neizvestny

In 1974, Neizvestny prepared wall decor for the library of the Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology. The authorities allocated little money; ill-wishers hoped that the sculptor would refuse. But Neizvestny saved money: he did not give his sketch to the plant, as many sculptors did, but made the bas-relief with his own hands. And again a record was set: the area of ​​the bas-relief “The Formation of Homo sapiens” was 970 square meters. In those years, it became the largest bas-relief created indoors in the country.

Neizvestny's last project on the territory of the Soviet Union was a bas-relief on the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Ashgabat.

Unknown in exile

In 1976, Neizvestny left the Soviet Union. His wife, ceramic artist Dina Mukhina, and her daughter Olga did not go with him.

In the USSR I could do big official things, use my formal techniques, but I could not do what I wanted. I reminded myself of an actor who has dreamed of playing Hamlet all his life, but he was not given the chance, and only when he got old and wanted to play King Lear, he was offered the role of Hamlet. Formally it was a victory, but internally it was a defeat.

Ernst Neizvestny

He was already known abroad - before emigrating, the sculptor held his personal exhibitions in Europe. The first country where the sculptor moved was Switzerland. Unknown lived in Zurich less than a year, then moved to New York. There he was elected to the New York Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1986 he became a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences and later of the European Academy of Sciences, Arts and Humanities. In the USA, Neizvestny lectured on culture and philosophy at Columbia and Oregon universities, as well as at the University of California at Berkeley. He knew representatives of the American elite - Andy Warhol, Henry Kissinger, Arthur Miller.

Drawing from the “Capriccio” series. Ernst Neizvestny. Photo: Anton Butsenko / ITAR-TASS

Memorial "Mask of Sorrow". Sculptor Ernst Neizvestny. 1996. Photo: svopi.ru

During the first years of emigration, Neizvestny sculpted the head of Dmitri Shostakovich for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. Several times his exhibitions were held at the Magna Gallery in San Francisco. At the request of this exhibition center, Neizvestny completed the cycle “Man through the Wall”. His works were also exhibited in Sweden: a museum of sculptures of the Unknown was opened in Wattersberg in 1987. Several crucifixes designed by Neizvestny were purchased for the Vatican Museum by Pope John Paul II.

Since the early 1990s, Ernst Neizvestny began to visit Russia frequently. In 1994, the sculptor created a sketch of the country's main television award - “TEFI”. The figurine represents a character ancient greek mythology- Orpheus, playing on the strings of his soul. A year later, the first monument to the Unknown in the post-Soviet space, the “Golden Child,” was installed at the Marine Station in Odessa in Ukraine. In 1996, the monument “Exodus and Return” was opened in Elista, dedicated to the deportation of the Kalmyk people to Siberia. At the same time, the “Mask of Sorrow” memorial was opened. And one night, it was literally right away, I saw the “Tree of Life” in a dream. I woke up with ready-made solution. <...> General form, the shape of the tree crown and the shape of the heart have been decided. Thus, it was as if I saw at night a super task that reconciled me with my real fate and gave me, albeit fictitious, a model that made it possible to work to nowhere, but for a single goal.

Ernst Neizvestny

In “Bagration” a glass dome was erected over the “Tree” - also according to a sketch by Neizvestny. In the structure of the “Tree of Life” you can see both Mobius loops and faces historical figures, and religious symbols.

In 2007, the sculptor completed his last monumental work- bronze figure of Sergei Diaghilev. It was installed in the family home of the impresario in Perm.

IN last years During his life, the Unknown was seriously ill, almost blind and did not work, but from time to time he sketched his ideas on whatman paper using a special optical device. Ernst Neizvestny was buried in the city cemetery of Shelter Island in the USA.

Life story
Unknown was born in Sverdlovsk on April 9, 1925. His mother named him Eric. And only in 1941, just before the war, when receiving a passport, he wrote down his full name- Ernst. His grandfather was a merchant, his father was a white officer, Antonov’s adjutant. Later he was a pediatrician, an otolaryngologist, and also worked as a surgeon. When the Reds arrived, they were supposed to shoot my grandfather and father. But the grandmother remembered that the grandfather secretly printed communist brochures in his printing house. Then she found these documents and presented them to the Bolsheviks. No one was shot.
His mother, Baroness Bella Dijour, a purebred Jew and Christian, was still alive in the mid-nineties and published her poems in one of the New York newspapers.
Ernst, as a boy, had a reputation as a notorious hooligan. Attributing to himself extra year, already at the age of seventeen, Ernst graduated military school- accelerated release. There, during the war, Lieutenant Neizvestny received a death sentence from the tribunal, which was replaced by a penal battalion. And there, during the Great Patriotic War, he received several military awards and wounds. One of them was very severe; three intervertebral discs were knocked out, seven suturings of the diaphragm, complete suturing of the lungs, open pneumothorax... Unknown was saved by a brilliant Russian doctor, whose name he never learned - this was in a field hospital. After the war, the former officer walked on crutches for three years, with a broken spine, injected himself with morphine, struggling with terrible pain, and even began to stutter.
Then Neizvestny studied at the Academy of Arts in Riga and at the Moscow Surikov Institute. In parallel with these studies, he attended lectures at the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University.
Having received his diploma in 1954, a year later he became a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR, and a little later - a laureate of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow for the sculpture “No to Nuclear War!” Already at that time his attraction to “ big style“- emphasized pathos and vivid mythology of each sculpture.
In 1957, Neizvestny performed the statue that became famous - “Dead Soldier”. This is a lying figure with an almost decayed face, a huge hole in the chest and a ossified hand extended forward and still convulsively clenched into a fist - a man whose last gesture still symbolizes struggle, movement forward.
Next, he creates images that are sharply different from the usual easel sculpture of those years - “Suicide” (1958), “Adam” (1962-1963), “Effort” (1962), “Mechanical Man” (1961-1962), “Two-Headed giant with an egg" (1963), a figure of a seated woman with a human fetus in the womb (1961).
In 1962, at an exhibition dedicated to the thirtieth anniversary of the Moscow Union of Artists, Neizvestny quite deliberately agreed to be N.S.’s guide. Khrushchev. He had no doubt about his right to primacy in art. And he always had enough courage. However, the result of the meeting did not live up to his hopes.
It was not exhibited for several years. But after Khrushchev’s removal, the temporary disgrace ended. Unknown began to travel abroad and receive serious government orders. For example, in 1966 he created the decorative relief “Prometheus” for the Artek pioneer camp, 150 meters long. True, he was not awarded any prizes. Nevertheless, his fame gradually grew in Europe and the USA, and collectors began to purchase his works. And exhibitions, which were held in small halls of research institutes, became events.
“Returning to the works of the 60s, I would like to say about two more of them,” writes N.V. Voronov. - This is, firstly, “Orpheus” (1962-1964). Song of loneliness. A muscular man on his knees, pressing one arm bent at the elbow to his thrown back head in a gesture of some inexpressible grief, hopelessness and melancholy, and tearing his chest with the other. The theme of human suffering and despair is expressed here with some almost impossible force. Deformation, exaggeration, exaggeration - everything here works for the image, and the torn chest screams with a bloody cry about loneliness, about the impossibility of living in this dungeon of life without faith, without love, without hope. It seems to me that this is one of the most powerful works of the Unknown of the 60s, perhaps less philosophical, addressed more to our feelings, to direct perception. Probably less dialogic compared to other works, closer to the usual idea of ​​realism, but nevertheless one of the most expressive.
And the second is “The Prophet” (1962-1966). This is a kind of plastic illustration of Neizvestny’s own thoughts expressed in the same years. He wrote: “My favorite work remains Pushkin’s poem “The Prophet,” and the best sculptor I know is, perhaps, the six-winged seraph from the same poem.”
In 1971, Neizvestny won the competition for designs for a monument in honor of the opening of the Aswan Dam in Egypt - with the Friendship of Peoples monument, 87 meters high. Other major works in the first half of the seventies were the eight-meter “Heart of Christ” monument for a monastery in Poland (1973-1975) and a 970-meter decorative relief for the Moscow Institute of Electronics and Technology (1974).

The year 1974 became a kind of milestone in his work; the sculptor created a monument on Khrushchev’s grave, which became his last major work installed in his homeland before emigration.
“This tombstone,” notes N.V. Voronov, “quickly became popular, because in a concentrated artistic form conveyed the essence of Khrushchev’s activities and views. On a small dais, in a somewhat unusual, powerful marble frame, stood a surprisingly similar bronze gilded head of Nikita Sergeevich, moreover, sculpted simply and humanely, not at all with that touch of “leadership” that we are accustomed to on the numerous monuments to great people standing in almost every city . There is a special meaning in the marble blocks surrounding this head. The peculiar frame was made in such a way that one half of it was white and the other was black...”
The sculptor did not want to emigrate. But he was not given work in the USSR, he was not allowed to work in the West. From the beginning of the sixties until his departure, the sculptor created more than 850 sculptures - these are the cycles “Strange Births”, “Centaurs”, “Construction of Man”, “Crucifixions”, “Masks” and others.
Neizvestny spent almost all the money he earned working as a mason or restoring the reliefs of the destroyed Cathedral of Christ the Savior, located in the Donskoy Monastery, on his sculptures.
Of his 850 sculptures, only 4 were purchased from him! Criminal cases were brought against him, he was accused of currency fraud and espionage. Moreover, Unknown was constantly met on the street strange people and they beat me, broke ribs, fingers, and nose. Unknown applied 67 times to be allowed to go to the West to build with Niemeyer. They didn't let me in. And then he decides to leave Russia altogether - on March 10, 1976, the sculptor left his homeland.
When Neizvestny found himself in Europe, Chancellor Kreisky gave him an Austrian passport, and the government gave him one of the best studios in the country. But the sculptor moves from Austria to Switzerland to Paul Sachar (Schönenbert), one of richest people peace. He bought the sculptor a barracks in Basel for a new studio. His wife Maya Sahar, also a sculptor, idolized the Unknown. She gave him her studio with all the instruments, with the entire library.
“To these people,” says Neizvestny, “Picasso and Henry Moore came to bow to them. Meeting Paul Sachar was like meeting the Lord God. And Saint Peter, who opened the door of heaven, turned out to be Slava Rostropovich. Slava Rostropovich even wrote a book, “Thank you, Paul,” about how Paul brought many of today’s greats into the world. And so I found myself in the face of the career Lord God. But I took it and left, for my own reasons. I couldn't stand living in a rich man's house.....
...In 1976 I came to America, and literally the next day the opening of my work, a bust of Shostakovich, took place at the Kennedy Center. There were great articles and TV shows. Alex Lieberman and Andy Warhol took care of me. I was very friendly with Warhol. He owns the phrase “Khrushchev is an average politician of the era of Ernst the Unknown.”
Wonderful friend Slava Rostropovich, who received for long years a huge package of social connections, with a generous hand he handed them all to me. Presidents, kings, major critics, artists, politicians. Having connected to this social life, I very soon realized that it was not for me. You come to the “party”, they hand you twenty business cards, you are obliged to respond. Communication is growing exponentially. The lonely profession of a sculptor cannot withstand such stress. I burned Business Cards. Stopped communicating. Socially it put me at the bottom."
But Neizvestny ensured that the celebrities with whom Rostropovich introduced him began to come to his studio as a sculptor.
It takes two to three hours to get to Neizvestny's house from Manhattan. First across Long Island, and then take the ferry. After ten minutes of sailing, the shore of a clean, well-groomed Shelter Island appears, inhabited by retired millionaires, important young people with expensive manners - and a famous Russian sculptor. The artist owns a plot of one hectare and half a lake. The house was built according to the design of Neizvestny himself and corresponds to his spirit. Attached to it is a studio, a high cylindrical hall with a gallery.
When the master left Russia, his wife Dina Mukhina and daughter Olga were not allowed to go with him. In October 1995, Neizvestny married again. Anya is Russian, she emigrated a long time ago. By profession she is a Spanish scholar.
Neizvestny himself taught in Hamburg, Harvard, Columbia University and New York University - art, anatomy, philosophy, synthesis of arts. I could have become a permanent professor, but I didn’t want to. He really enjoyed teaching, but the routine paperwork got in the way. And also reports, meetings... All this took up too much precious time.
As always, the sculptor works very hard in the studio. Although in recent years he has undergone two heart surgeries. Once he even survived clinical death. He was saved again by a Russian doctor - Sasha Shakhnovich.
“...I spend a lot,” says Unknown, “material, casting, assistants - there is necrosis huge money. Several million dollars have been invested in my park - if you count one casting. And when I don’t work, rich people don’t spend money, but give dividends.
According to the rules, 12 copies of the sculpture have the status of an original. I used to cast 12 each. But now I try to give minimum editions - maybe two, maybe three copies. This will not increase the cost, no, but the value of the work. And this gives me a perspective in life, something to live for - work. And if there is overstocking, it is psychologically very difficult to work.
In the West, I realized that freedom of creativity is given by money, this is the blood of creativity; you need to invest a lot of money to create sculptures.”
Along with large-scale works, Neizvestny creates works related to small plastic arts, as well as numerous graphic cycles. An important component of the artist’s creativity has always been book graphics. Back in the late sixties, he created a series of illustrations for the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment". They saw the light in the series " Literary monuments».
Last decade An unknown person was involved in the design of the popular work in the world - the Bible. His illustrations to Ecclesiastes express a complex and contradictory world modern man. Here the traditions of Bosch and Goya are reflected, who saw grotesque surrounding reality and those who did not find bright principles in her.
Small plastic art involuntarily led Neizvestny to a completely new direction in his work; he began to create jewelry. The special refinement of movements developed in small plastic helped the sculptor to create extraordinary fine works, and he gravitates not towards decorations, but towards interior items. Thus, he seems to continue the main line of creativity aimed at understanding man and himself.
In 1995, Neizvestny became a laureate of the State Prize of Russia, was reinstated in the Union of Artists, and received Russian citizenship. In the nineties, the sculptor came to his historical homeland more than once on business. In 1995, he opened a monument to the victims of Stalin’s repressions in Magadan - a seventeen-meter reinforced concrete “Mask of Sorrow.” Neizvestny took on most of the expenses, donating 800 thousand dollars from his fees for the construction of the monument.
IN art gallery“Nashchokin’s House” was the first personal exhibition of Neizvestny’s sculpture, painting and drawings held in Russia after his emigration. It reflected the main stages creative path artist from 1966 to 1993.
However, the master cannot return to Russia forever. His creativity is connected with a huge material base. These are machines, casting, studio, factories. Starting over again after seventy is impossible even for him, who has some secret of creative longevity.
And yet, what caused such an insatiable thirst for creativity at such a respectable age: “Absolute madness and efficiency,” answers the maestro.
And one more thing….. “There were no great atheist artists. The point is that you need to have some modesty. You don’t need to consider yourself exceptional, disconnected from the flight of ducks, from the changing stars, from the ebb and flow of the tides.
The only creature that suddenly has an idea is man. This does not mean that you are appointed by God! This is nonsense, God does not appoint anyone. He accepts".

Among outstanding sculptors Ernst Neizvestny occupies a worthy place in the world. The sculptures, photos of which can be seen in all textbooks on art of the 20th century, betray an unusual view of the world. The works of the Unknown are always recognizable and produce vivid impression with its expression and vitality. The artist's life was not easy, but he was able to maintain his individuality, humor and optimism until the very end of his days.

Biographical milestones

Ernst Neizvestny was born on April 9, 1925 in Sverdlovsk. Parents, a doctor and a poetess, were repressed in the 30s. The boy's talent manifested itself very early; he attended art school as a child, and at the age of 17 he entered school at the Academy of Arts. During World War II, Ernst volunteered for the front and, after completing training, went to serve in the airborne forces. In 1945 he was seriously wounded and sent for treatment. For the battle in which he was wounded, Neizvestny was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. But because of the last name, there was confusion, and for 28 years the award committee could not find Ernst. It was at this time that Neizvestny had a direct conflict with Khrushchev on the topic of art, and the title of Hero was never given to the artist, replacing him. After the war, Neizvestny received his education at the Riga Academy of Arts, at the Institute. Surikov, at the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. By the mid-1950s, Ernst Iosifovich became a prominent artist and nonconformist. In 1962 he took part in the exhibition contemporary art, defeated by N.S. Khrushchev. From that time on, it became difficult for Neizvestny to work in the USSR, and in 1976 he emigrated, first to Switzerland and then to the USA, where he would live most of his life. After perestroika, Ernst Iosifovich often visited Russia. His works are in private and museum collections in his homeland and in many countries around the world. The unknown man was married several times and has a daughter. At the age of 88, he underwent a complex operation and for several more years continued to create and live to the fullest. The artist died on August 9, 2016 in New York.

Creative path

Since the late 50s, Neizvestny has been actively working and experimenting. First of all, he realizes himself as a sculptor. But since the 70s, he has devoted a lot of time to graphics, illustrating literary works, in particular, “Crime and Punishment” by F.M. Dostoevsky. In the USSR, Neizvestny only had two exhibitions, after which he was subjected to harassment for his desire for avant-gardeism. Since 1965, he has actively participated in exhibitions in the West. Before leaving abroad, Ernst managed to create 850 in the USSR various works. And after emigration, Neizvestny becomes a permanent participant in various art events in different countries of the world. He has always been characterized by very high productivity. The sculptures of Ernst Neizvestny are gaining great popularity, he is quickly becoming a real celebrity. After perestroika, the artist again began to actively work in his homeland. Since the end of the 20th century, Neizvestny has been perceived throughout the world as a living classic, a master.

Author's style of Ernst Neizvestny

Already in his early years he showed innovation. The sculptures of Ernst Neizvestny combine deep symbolism and powerful expressionism. He is the founder of the new sculpture of the 20th century. His creations are universal metaphors with the deepest philosophical meaning It is not for nothing that some critics, trying to define his style, called Neizvestny’s works “intellectual sculpture.” In his mature work, Ernst Iosifovich most often turns to the human body, trying to connect it with the world of artifacts; the artist called this “second nature.” The main theme of his work is humanism, namely tragedy human life, its meaning occupied Neizvestny most of all throughout his life. He constantly turned to the ultimate human problems, he was interested highest manifestations human spirit. Researchers call the features of his author's style large-scale, expressive deformation of the image, and a high degree of generalization of the image.

The most famous sculptures of Ernst Neizvestny

The creative legacy of Ernst Neizvestny is enormous; until now, no one has undertaken to calculate how many works the master created. He has always been distinguished by his great efficiency, so there is a very a large number of his creations. His most famous works include: the monument to N. Khrushchev, the monumental sculptures “Tree of Life” and “Orpheus”, the composition “Prometheus and the Children of the World”, the monument “Lotus Flower”, sculptural portraits of A. Tarkovsky and D. Shostakovich, the religious work “ Heart of Christ", sculpture "Golden Child" in Odessa, monument "Renaissance". This list is completely incomplete, since the artist had many creations. Not only is it a collectible, but it often becomes part of the human environment. Many modern monumentalists created works specifically for different cities, and Ernst Neizvestny also often worked. Sculptures in Moscow were installed already during the perestroika period and are mainly part of mature creativity masters Thus, in the capital of Russia you can see such monuments of the artist as “The Tree of Life”, “Renaissance”, and the tombstone of N. Khrushchev.

Orpheus

The two-meter sculpture “Orpheus” by Ernst Neizvestny was created in 1962. The original is kept in the artist's studio in New York. Sketches for this work were used to create a prize figurine. The figurine has an impressive weight of 8.5 kg, and exactly repeats the image of its “big ancestor”. The idea of ​​creating a sculpture came to the artist after Khrushchev destroyed his creations at art exhibition. In the image of a poet with a torn chest, playing “on the strings of his soul,” of course, Ernst Iosifovich conveyed his own experiences of that time.

Tree of Life

Global, universal problems are always of interest to great artists, such as Ernst Neizvestny. The sculptures “The Tree of Life” and “Prometheus and the Children of the World,” created based on mythological themes, are dedicated to universal questions of existence, good and evil. In “The Tree of Life” the author refers not only to biblical motifs, but also to the symbolism of other religions, as well as elements of island beliefs. In the sculpture you can see the faces of people of all times, from Adam and Eve to Yuri Gagarin. It is not in vain that the crown of the entire composition is the human heart as a symbol of life and feeling. An unknown person worked on this creation for more than 50 years. Today the sculpture stands in Moscow, and anyone can see it.

Monument to Khrushchev

Khrushchev's sculpture can be considered an example of unexpected life turns. Ernst Neizvestny in the 1960s, after Khrushchev tore his creations to smithereens, calling Neizvestny’s works “degenerate art,” could not sell a single work. For 15 years, he sold only 4 works, could not receive government orders, and worked as a loader. Therefore, Neizvestny had an understandably negative attitude towards Khrushchev. However, when, after the death of Nikita Sergeevich, his relatives asked to make a tombstone, the sculptor agreed. He created a composition that metaphorically conveyed the idea of ​​struggle and unity of opposites, light and darkness. The work is located at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Mask of Sorrow

Ernst Neizvestny, whose sculptures can be seen in the best museums in the world, often in his work addressed the theme of unfreedom of body and spirit. For several years he worked on the project of a monument to the memory of victims of repression in the USSR, called “Mask of Death”. In allegorical form, the artist conveys the idea of ​​the hypocrisy of the Soviet political regime. He creates a symbol of grief for wives and mothers who were waiting for the innocently convicted. Inside the monument, a replica of a prison cell has been recreated, into which you can climb an iron staircase, like a prison tower. The 15-meter monument is visible from almost anywhere in Magadan, the unofficial capital of Soviet-era camps.

Lotus flower

When describing the sculptures of Ernst Neizvestny, one cannot help but recall the grandiose monument “Lotus Flower” in Egypt. The monument symbolized Soviet-Arab friendship and was erected near the Aswan Dam. Neizvestny created this grandiose 75-meter structure in collaboration with two architects, who subsequently tried to downplay the role of the sculptor in the work on the project. One way or another, it was Ernst Iosifovich’s sketches that allowed a group of authors to win the competition to create the monument. Even today it is one of the ten tallest monuments in the world. All inner surface flower is decorated with bas-reliefs based on drawings by Ernst Neizvestny.

Heart of Christ

Ernst Neizvestny, whose sculptures are in the best collections in the world, was honored to create a work stored in the Vatican Museum. The sculpture “Heart of Christ” is a variation on the theme of the canonical crucifixion. The artist creates a complex composition in the center of which there is a cross, but the figure of Christ is surrounded by a certain entity, symbolizing pain, fear, and a person’s cry. The Pope wanted to buy the work, but the sculptor gave it to the priest, and now it adorns the Vatican Museum.

Awards and memory

Ernst Neizvestny's sculptures are located in different places around the world. In New York, the artist's studio has a good collection of his works. There is an interesting collection in Ernst Iosifovich’s homeland, Yekaterinburg. Several sculptures and many graphics are stored here. In the Swedish city of Uttersberg there is a museum with a small but good collection of the master's works. But the artist’s main works stand on the streets of cities around the world, some are located in famous cemeteries.

During his life, Ernst Neizvestny received many awards and prizes abroad. The homeland also paid tribute to the artist. He was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, the Order of Honor, and the State Prize of the Russian Federation.