Mikhail Ivanov is a legendary figure. Landmarks of his biography depict an image of the artist – a hero of his times.
He learnt in thу famous CXIII together with Oleg Grigoriev, Mikhail Shemyakin, Tatiana Kerner and Gennady Ustiugov. He was the first of this fabulous company who was sent down from the school because of his “formalism”.
Having finished the third year of the Art Faculty taking an external degree, he went to the Army. He served by Moscow and made acquaintance with Moscow non-official artists: Roguinsky, Kabakov, Krasnopevtsev, Schwarzman. After the return to Leningrad, he had contacts with persons of pre-war vanguard: Sterligov, Kondratiev, Basmanov. He had friendly relations with artists of the “Arefiev circle”: Richard Vasmi, Vladimir Shagin and Vakentin Gromov.
Participant and organizer of the first exhibitions of nonoficial art.
During almost ten years his flat in the Pravda Street was a centre of Leningrad art underground; there were exhibitions, discussions and meetings of artists of various “circles” and generations. In the Ivanov’s kitchen Dmitry Shagin, Aleksandr Florensky and Vladimir Shinkarev made their acquaintance, later they formed the art group of “Mit’ki”.
In 1980-s and in the beginning of 1990-s Mikhail Ivanov was professionally involved into icon painting and monumental church painting, made objects for the Russian Orthodox Church abroad.
Ivanov is known with his “sign” painting as he calls it himself. During several decades he worked a limited list of motives (feast, figure and house, head).
Since the end of 1990-s, the artist has been working over a cycle of pictures from nature. There were pencil drawings mainly, made in colour: city landscapes, genre scenes. In spite of their small size, it is rather difficult to call them sketches from nature. Balanced composition, generalized colour give his works persuasiveness of a complete statement. “Sign” basement protects Ivanov from a danger of transformation into genre painter. Few objects solemnly set in the space of a picture are in solitude – sometimes it’s tragic and intensive, sometimes it’s contemplative. Earlier the artist tried to saturate plastic form with living experience, but now a stream of life in a certain, chosen moment it becomes a form of the inner experience. |
