The artist – layers
“To be a painter and no one more!” – such a decision came Arkady Alexandrovich Plastov, who was born in a family of hereditary icon painters in his fifteen years. The famous Soviet painter, teacher, academician and people’s artist of the USSR, Arkady Plastov was born in an old Volga village called the Roslnik, in which he lived his whole life, met a war and died after seventy -nine years, leaving a noticeable mark in the history of Russian art. The images of ordinary people, their fellow villagers, quiet and majestic Russian nature – all this was a living reflection in the paintings of the master, responding in the hearts of his contemporaries. During his life, Arkady Plastov became a living classic of art, and his work was repeatedly printed in magazines and school textbooks.
For many artists who worked during the war, art was a way to cope with falling horror, a way to capture the truth for descendants. Art became an instrument of survival, agitation against death and the manifestation of an unbending will to win and life. Having met the harsh years in his native village, Arkady Plastov created one of the first major and memorable works about the war. Already in 1942, he writes, and then repeats the world-famous canvas “fascist”-a tragic parable about a random and ridiculous death of a innocent shepherd boy. The responsibility of the artist, as a moral guideline for an entire country, increases a lot during the years of difficult trials. The picture became a symbol of the tragedy of the invasion of the destructive power of war in the life and life of ordinary peaceful people. Acting autumn landscape, dull flavor serve as a tragic accompaniment of a desperate cry of a dog left without its little owner.
E.B. Mogilevsky, c.M. Akhunov. Materials for audio guide at the exhibition “Memory” for the IZI platform.Travel. 2020
