Spas Emmanuil (Christ Emmanuel). 1668. The State Tretyakov Gallery. Work by Russian icon painter Simon Ushakov (1626-1686)

Russian icon painter Simon Ushakov
In the history of Old Russian fine arts this name stands alongside with the names of Andrei Rublev and Dionysius. According to GD Filimonov, the author of the first monographic essay on Simon Ushakov (1873), Ushakov was the first to look at icon painting as art. Ushakov was both an educator and, apparently, an able organizer, who for more than thirty years headed the artistic activity of all Russian state. Simon Ushakov demonstrated a new attitude to art and to the artist. It was a broader and freer nature of the world perception, conditioned by the general process of the development of Russian culture. Noteworthy, the biographical information about Simon Ushakov can be compiled from the well-known detailed information in the archives of the Armory Chamber. Thus, according the signatures on some icons, the autographs show that the real name of the artist was Pimen, and Simon is only a nickname. Besides, the inscription of one icon makes it possible to establish that Ushakov was born in 1626, and it is known that he died in 1686.
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Self-portrait. Russian painter Leonid Osipovich Pasternak (3 April 1862 – May 31, 1945)

Russian painter Leonid Osipovich Pasternak
Rubinstein and Scriabin, Tolstoy and Gorky, Mechnikov and Einstein posed for him. He was famous for being a brilliant portraitist and master illustrator. His paintings are in the world’s largest museums and in galleries of hundreds of collectors. However, for many decades the name of Leonid Pasternak was forgotten. Perhaps the genius of his father overshadowed his brilliant son – the poet Boris Pasternak.

Born in April 1862 in Odessa, Leonid Pasternak was the youngest child in a large Jewish family, one of the oldest and most respected Jewish families, which comes from King David. Apparently, from an excess of feelings, his parents named him just two names – Abram and Isaac. However, the relatives called him exclusively Leonid. On this occasion, the artist even had to write explanations in official institutions. By the way, the name originally sounded not Pasternak, but Posternak.
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Market Square in a provincial town. 1917. Russian Jewish painter Arnold Lakhovsky (27 January 1880 – 7 January 1937)

Russian Jewish painter Arnold Lakhovsky

Talented graphic artist, sculptor, and painter Arnold Lakhovsky (aka Aaron Berkovich Lakhovsky) was born in the town of Chernobyl of Russian Empire. In 1902 he graduated from Odessa Art College, where he studied in the studio of K. Kostandi and G. Ladyzhensky. Then he worked in the work shop of Maro in the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. In addition, he attended art classes of Slovene realist painter Anton Ažbe (30 May 1862 – 5 or 6 August 1905), and worked in Worms (German city). In 1904 he came to St. Petersburg and entered the Higher Art School at the Imperial Academy of Arts. He studied in the studio of Ilya Repin (1907).
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Shor Madonna. 1995. Oil on canvas. Colorful painting by Shor artist Lyubov Arbachakova

Colorful painting by Shor artist Lyubov Arbachakova
Lyubov Nikitovna Arbachakova (nee Tudegesheva) was born, so to speak, at the right time and right place. God giving talents, immediately noticed her, walked straight up to her and gave many – a gift of word, colors and scientific knowledge. All these generous gifts God has combined with the incredible gift of a great soul.
Lyubov Arbachakova – Shor painter and graphic artist, poet, scholar and researcher of Shor heroic epic, candidate of philological sciences, a member of the Union of Artists (2005) and the Union of Russian Writers (1997). She was born May 1, 1963 in the heart of Mountain Shoria: in a small Siberian village of Anzass (Kemerovo region) among amazingly beautiful and majestic mountain taiga. She will carefully and skillfully transfer these colors on her canvases. And these colors produce the expected, and still unexpected effect. According to art critics and viewers of her personal exhibitions, her paintings radiate some kind of extraordinary energy and heat.
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Symbolic Rooster Chinese painting

Symbolic Rooster Chinese painting
In China, Rooster is considered the main symbol of the element Yang, and a carrier of many advantages. Male principle bird, Bird of Glory, meaning – vigilance, bravery, courage, foresight, and reliability. Rooster – the messenger of dawn, the sun and the symbol of spiritual rebirth. Rooster – the tenth symbolic animal of the Twelve Earthly Branches (Eastern Zodiac) and in the astrological sense – it corresponds to October, when in the ancient times in China made preparations for war.
In the work of Chinese contemporary artist working in the style of Guohua, Feng Yingjie roosters take honorable place. The image of the Rooster includes a number of different symbolic meanings reflected in the Chinese literature and philosophy.
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Yuri Arsenyuk exquisite floral still lifes

Yuri Arsenyuk exquisite floral still lifes

Well-known and talented artist Yuri Arsenyuk has found his own way in art. In 1980s, new significant milestone for him becomes a study in the studio of Professor, People’s Artist of the USSR Ilya Glazunov, in Moscow State Art Institute of Surikov. Within its walls, and thanks to Ilya Glazunov, students learned the true classical school. There, the world famous artist gave them skills, great spirit of true art, and realism, which, like wings, help the artists fly. Thus, they focused on the great works of the Italian Renaissance, classic Russian and Western European art. Climbing the stairs of excellence, he, while still a student, creates portraits, landscapes, and exquisite floral still lifes. Yuri Arsenyuk – a member of the International Federation of Artists of UNESCO (1994), and Professor of the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. In addition, he is the head of art studio of Moscow State Academy of Surikov, created by Ilya Glazunov for the Study of Technology of the old masters of Europe and Russia.
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Siberian artist Albertina Fomchenko as a Sirin bird. Portrait in Russian tradition

Siberian artist Albertina Fomchenko (01.23.1939, Leningrad – 28.01.2010, Novokuznetsk) – painter, theater artist. She graduated from Palekh Art School (1957-1962); Diploma – a casket painted on the themes of Russian folk songs; Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinema in “painter and sculptor of Puppet Theater” (1971); diploma work – creation of sets and puppets for the play “Forest Song” by Lesya Ukrainka. Albertina Fomchenko lived and worked in Novokuznetsk from 1975 to 2010. She began participating in exhibitions in 1986, directed the school of lacquer miniature in the city of Novokuznetsk (1994-1995). She worked in folk art traditions. In many of her paintings can be seen mythological Sirin bird, a symbol of national traditions, and a kind of her talisman.
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