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Semyonov-Amursky, Fedor Vasilyevich

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23.03.1902 – 21.07.1980

Fedor Vasilyevich Semenov-Amursky – painter, master of landscape, portrait and symbolic and allegorical compositions.

Fedor Vasilyevich was born in Blagoveshchensk-on-Amur. Following the tradition of the old masters and wishing to stand out from the mass of contemporaries, the artist took the second part of the surname at the place of birth. He was interested in painting since early childhood, drew a lot and after school went to study at the Annunciation Art and Industrial School. Already from 1923 the master began to work as an illustrator in the regional newspapers “Amurskaya Pravda” and “Molodaya Gvardiya”.

In 1930, Semenov-Amursky married a young artist Elizabeth Eliseeva and lived with her for half a century, until his death.

Semyonov-Amursky studied not only Russian art and creativity of his compatriots and contemporaries, but also paid attention to the history and main trends of the development of world art. According to the artist: “all the most important thing that happened in the world of people, was happening in art. The history of art is the essence of world history. ” Art historians note the influence on the painting of the Semyonov-Amur French impressionists, primarily Matisse and Van Gogh.

The surviving records of the artist testify to close attention and analysis of their creative method. In the works of the master, one feels an appeal to the original, ancient and primitive art. The master was trying to find his universal sources and foundations, and also to understand and rethink their means of expression.

Fedor Vasilievich appealed to the folk art, the culture of Byzantium and Ancient Egypt, paid much attention to the children’s drawing, which preserved the primitive purity. His works preserved the archaic nature of art, and in the center of the artist’s attention were primarily forms, their rhythm, organic, color and linear structure.

Despite the fact that Semenov-Amursky ignored the political turmoil of time, which in his view did not bear any cultural meaning and had no relation to culture, he suffered the tragic fate of artists in Soviet Russia, whose work went beyond the “correct” ideology.

The uniqueness of the master is to use the techniques of his own invention. He painted oil paintings on carefully primed paper, and it was this kind of oil work that produced an interesting effect: in these works the canvas structure never appeared.

Fedor Vasilyevich worked hard, creating about a thousand works a year. He was almost never exhibited, except for participation in several apartment exhibitions. The artist’s works were not bought, and Fedor Vasilyevich earned a living by retouching photos for the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. In 1960-1962, before retirement, Semenov-Amursky took part in a major project – the restoration of the panorama “The Battle of Borodino.” Only in 1967 at the Institute of Physical Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Moscow his first solo exhibition was opened, and in 1976 the works of Fyodor Vasilyevich were exhibited in the Small Hall of the Central House of Artists. This exhibition was the last in vivo.

The artist died in Moscow. Keeper and propagandist of the creative heritage of Semenov-Amursky was his widow Elizabeth Izmailovna Eliseeva. Already after the death of the artist in 1980, Igor Shelkovsky organized the first artist’s exhibitions abroad, making sculptural frames for paintings, in which this painting is demonstrated to this day. The image of the picture frames is consonant with the graphic design of the manuscripts of Fedor Semenov-Amursky himself.

The artist’s works are included in the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the State Center for Contemporary Art, the Serpukhov Historical and Art Museum, the Chuvash State Art Museum, the Voronezh Regional Art Museum. I.Kramskogo and many other state museums, as well as in private collections.

F.V. Semenov-Amursky
Rider in the mountains
1952
© VOKhM im. I.N. Kramskoy