In the pre-revolutionary house of Petzold, right on the central pedestrian street of Bauman in Kazan, there is a museum of the artist Vasiliev. It became the only museum I visited while in the city.
1. Self-portrait, 1970
The artist was born in Maykop during the German occupation of the city. The artist's father was the chief engineer of one of the factories. After the war, he was sent to establish production at a glass factory in the village of Vasilyevo near Kazan.
Works from the early 1960s. marked by the influence of surrealism and abstract expressionism.
2. String, 1963. Something from Dali, huh? 
Since 1949, the family lived in the village of Vasilyevo. At the age of 11, Konstantin passed the competition and was enrolled in the Moscow Art Boarding School at the Moscow Art Institute. Surikov. Later he transferred to the Kazan Art School, from which he graduated with honors.
3. Formalized work 
4. Atomic explosion, 1964. Am I the only one who sees the crucified Christ here? 
5. Birth of the Danube, 1974 from the epic cycle. 
6. Northern Eagle, 1969. Remember this face, you will see it again. 
7. Sviyazhsk, 1973. And here the painting style reminds me of Nesterov. 
8. At the well, against the backdrop of the gate, 1975. It could also be called Russian Gothic☺. Do you recognize the man? 
9. Self-portrait, 1968. I never understood how people can draw themselves... 
10. Portrait of Lieutenant Pronin, 1969 
11. Waiting, 1976 
There is a series of paintings dedicated to the Patriotic War.
12.. Invasion. An iron column of conquerors moves like a snake past the destroyed skeleton of the Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. 
13. Marshal Zhukov, 1974. The portrait of the marshal was conceived as the beginning of a series of images of great military leaders, and was executed in a deliberately ceremonial manner. 
14. Homesickness, 1974 
The artist intended to rewrite “Farewell of the Slavic Woman,” for which he left the painting to soak, which is why the canvas suffered damage, since it was removed from the water after Vasiliev’s death.
15. Farewell of the Slavyanka, 1974 
16. Forest Gothic, 
17.
The source of inspiration for Vasiliev was the Icelandic sagas. He carefully studied this book, making notes from which it is clear that his main attention was drawn to the so-called family sagas, a kind of description of the life of the remarkable Icelanders of the 9th-11th centuries.
18. Wotan, 1969. He is One. Still the same look... 
Vasiliev became acquainted with the works of Richard Wagner and even specially studied German in order to understand the texts of his operas.
19. Death of the Viking, 1970. She is also the Valkyrie over the slain Siegfried. 
Vasiliev’s final touch was the painting “Man with an Eagle Owl.” In this painting, the artist’s favorite object, a candle, turns into a symbol-light, in the guise of an old man he represents the wisdom of human experience; with its roots it seems to have grown into the earth, and with its head it connects with the heavens. In his hand he holds a burning scroll with the artist’s pseudonym “Konstantin the Great Russian” inscribed on it and the date that became the year of his death: 1976. An oak sprout emerges from the flames and ashes, depicted like trefoil flowers strung on top of each other, a symbol of wisdom and enlightenment. A torch burns above the sprout, a symbol of the unquenchable burning of the soul. Above his gray head, the old man holds a whip, and on his mitten sits an owl, whose all-seeing eye completes its movement upward, towards the sky and space.
Having completed “Man with an Owl,” Vasiliev told his friend and mother who came to visit him: “I now understand what needs to be written and how to write.” A few days later his life was cut short.
20. Man with an owl, 1976 
Konstantin Vasiliev died - he was hit together with a friend at a railway crossing by a passing train in 1976.
Slide 2
To understand the inner world of a person, one must certainly touch his roots. A. Doronin
Konstantin Alekseevich Vasiliev (1942-1976) is a Russian artist whose creative heritage includes more than 400 works of painting and graphics: portraits, landscapes, surreal compositions, paintings of epic, mythological and battle genres. Among his famous works are the cycles “Epic Rus'” and “The Ring of the Nibelung”, a series of paintings about the Great Patriotic War, and graphic portraits.
Slide 3
Self-portrait.1970
Slide 4
Native places
The nature here was special, created by the great river. The right bank rises in a blue haze, almost steep, overgrown with forest; you can see a distant white monastery on the slope, to the right - the fabulous Sviyazhsk, all located on Table Mountain with its temples and churches, shops and houses, rising above the wide meadows in the floodplain of Sviyaga and the Volga. And very far away, already beyond Sviyaga, on its high bank, the bell tower and church of the village of Tikhy Ples are barely visible. Closer to the village there is a river, a wide water stream. And the water is deep, slow and cool, and the pools are bottomless, shady and cold.
Slide 5
Slide 6
Parents helped the development of his abilities as best they could: tactfully and unobtrusively, while protecting taste, they selected books and reproductions, introduced Kostya to music, and took him to museums in Kazan, Moscow, Leningrad, when the opportunity and opportunity presented themselves. The parents saw that the boy was gifted and could not live without drawing, and therefore more than once thought about the teachers’ advice - to send their son to an art school.
Slide 7
Having recovered from the first overwhelming impressions of the giant city, the boy did not get lost in the unfamiliar space. The Tretyakov Gallery and the Pushkin Museum, the Bolshoi Theater and the Conservatory - these became his main gates to the world of classical art. With childish seriousness, he reads “Treatise on Painting” by Leonardo da Vinci, and then studies the paintings of this great master and “Napoleon” by the Soviet historian Evgeniy Tarle, with all the fervor of his young soul he immerses himself in the music of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Bach. And the powerful, almost materialized spirituality of these giants is fixed in his consciousness with crystals of precious rock.
Slide 8
The Great Patriotic War
Just before the war, the young Vasiliev couple lived in Maykop. They were eagerly awaiting their first child. But a month before his birth, Alexey Alekseevich joined the partisan detachment: the Germans were approaching Maykop. Klavdia Parmenovna was unable to evacuate. On August 8, 1942, the city was occupied, and on September 3, Konstantin Vasiliev entered the world. Needless to say, what hardships and hardships befell the young mother and baby. Klavdiya Parmenovna and her son were taken to the Gestapo, then released, trying to uncover possible connections with the partisans. The Vasilievs’ lives literally hung by a thread, and only the rapid advance of Soviet troops saved them. Maykop was liberated on February 3, 1943.
Slide 9
.
Self-portrait 1968
Slide 10
Invasion
Slide 11
By creating a military series, Konstantin realized his most daring plans. One of them was the appearance of works on the themes of favorite military marches, which have always played a large role in Russian military life. The artist believed that ancient Russian marches performed by brass bands are another important cross-section of a powerful layer of Russian culture. And now the works “Farewell of a Slav” and “Longing for the Motherland” come out from under his brush. He painted them with appropriate musical accompaniment on large canvases - each up to two meters in length.
Slide 12
Farewell of a Slav
Slide 13
War - there is no crueler word. War - there is no sadder word. War - there is no holier word... A.T. Tvardovsky
Slide 14
Homesickness
Slide 15
Vocabulary work
Gray soldier's overcoats Solid steel helmets Glow of war Profile of a young soldier Farewell look Realistic work The power of the Russian spirit Legendary glory Column of soldiers
Konstantin Alekseevich Vasiliev(September 3, 1942, Maykop - October 29, 1976, Vasilyevo, Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, RSFSR) - Soviet artist, widely known for his works on epic and mythological themes.
Vasiliev’s creative heritage is multifaceted and diverse and includes more than 400 works of painting and graphics: portraits, landscapes, surreal compositions, paintings on fairy tales, on themes of ancient and modern Russian history. The deep symbolism of painting, combined with the original color scheme of the canvases - the widespread use of silver-gray and red and their shades - make Vasiliev’s paintings recognizable and original.
Born in Maykop (Adygei Autonomous Okrug) during the German occupation of the city. Since 1949 he lived in the village of Vasilyevo near Kazan. Studied at the Kazan Art School (1957-1961). He worked as a drawing and drawing teacher in a high school and as a graphic designer. Vasiliev’s creative heritage is extensive: paintings, graphics, sketches, illustrations, sketches for painting a church in Omsk. Works from the early 1960s. marked by the influence of surrealism and abstract expressionism (“String”, 1963; “Abstract Compositions”, 1963). In the late 1960s gt. abandoned formalistic searches and worked in a realistic manner.
Vasiliev turned to folk art: Russian songs, epics, fairy tales, Scandinavian and Irish sagas, and “Eddic poetry.” He created works on mythological subjects, heroic themes of the Slavic and Scandinavian epics, about the Great Patriotic War (“Marshal Zhukov”, “Invasion”, “Forty-First Parade”, “Longing for the Motherland”, 1972-1975).
He also worked in the genre of landscape and portrait (“Swans”, 1967; “Northern Eagle”, 1969; “At the Well”, 1973; “Waiting”, 1976; “Man with an Eagle Owl”, 1976). Author of a graphic series of portraits of composers and musicians: “Shostakovich” (1961), “Beethoven” (1962), “Scriabin” (1962), “Rimsky-Korsakov” (1962) and others; graphic cycle to R. Wagner’s opera “The Ring of the Nibelungs” (1970s).
Participant in the republican exhibition “Satirist Artists of Kazan” (Moscow, 1963), exhibitions in Zelenodolsk and Kazan (1968-76). In the 1980-90s. a number of personal exhibitions of Vasiliev took place in many cities
To understand the inner world of a person, one must certainly touch his roots. A. Doronin Konstantin Alekseevich Vasiliev () is a Russian artist whose creative heritage includes more than 400 works of painting and graphics: portraits, landscapes, surreal compositions, paintings of epic, mythological and battle genres. Among his famous works are the cycles “Epic Rus'” and “The Ring of the Nibelung”, a series of paintings about the Great Patriotic War, and graphic portraits.
Native places Nature was special here, created by the great river. The right bank rises in a blue haze, almost steep, overgrown with forest; you can see a distant white monastery on the slope, to the right - the fabulous Sviyazhsk, all located on Table Mountain with its temples and churches, shops and houses, rising above the wide meadows in the floodplain of Sviyaga and the Volga. And very far away, already beyond Sviyaga, on its high bank, the bell tower and church of the village of Tikhy Ples are barely visible. Closer to the village there is a river, a wide water stream. And the water is deep, slow and cool, and the pools are bottomless, shady and cold.
.
Parents helped the development of his abilities as best they could: tactfully and unobtrusively, while protecting taste, they selected books and reproductions, introduced Kostya to music, and took him to museums in Kazan, Moscow, Leningrad, when the opportunity and opportunity presented themselves. The parents saw that the boy was gifted and could not live without drawing, and therefore more than once thought about the teachers’ advice - to send their son to an art school.
Having recovered from the first overwhelming impressions of the giant city, the boy did not get lost in the unfamiliar space. The Tretyakov Gallery and the Pushkin Museum, the Bolshoi Theater and the Conservatory - these became his main gates to the world of classical art. With childish seriousness, he reads “Treatise on Painting” by Leonardo da Vinci, and then studies the paintings of this great master and “Napoleon” by the Soviet historian Evgeniy Tarle, with all the fervor of his young soul he immerses himself in the music of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Bach. And the powerful, almost materialized spirituality of these giants is fixed in his consciousness with crystals of precious rock.
The Great Patriotic War Just before the war, the young Vasiliev couple lived in Maykop. They were eagerly awaiting their first child. But a month before his birth, Alexey Alekseevich joined the partisan detachment: the Germans were approaching Maykop. Klavdia Parmenovna was unable to evacuate. On August 8, 1942, the city was occupied, and on September 3, Konstantin Vasiliev entered the world. Needless to say, what hardships and hardships befell the young mother and baby. Klavdiya Parmenovna and her son were taken to the Gestapo, then released, trying to uncover possible connections with the partisans. The Vasilievs’ lives literally hung by a thread, and only the rapid advance of Soviet troops saved them. Maykop was liberated on February 3, 1943.
By creating a military series, Konstantin realized his most daring plans. One of them was the appearance of works on the themes of favorite military marches, which have always played a large role in Russian military life. The artist believed that ancient Russian marches performed by brass bands are another important cross-section of a powerful layer of Russian culture. And now the works “Farewell of a Slav” and “Longing for the Motherland” come out from under his brush. He painted them to the appropriate musical accompaniment on large canvases up to two meters in length each.
Vasiliev’s patriotic paintings, dedicated to the fight against fascism during the Great Patriotic War, caused a great public outcry in our country. Great strength is seen in its epic and historical heroes. Physical and spiritual tension is often required from the viewer in order to decide how to perceive the event that happened in the picture, its plot, and symbolism. The realism of the stern faces in the artist’s paintings is nothing more than the concentration understandable to everyone during any difficult task.
Description of the painting “Invasion” by Konstantin Vasiliev
When searching for information about K. Vasiliev’s film “Invasion,” you will certainly find something about the rock festival of the same name being held in the Tver region. Domestic rock musicians gather in the open air, including A. Vasiliev and the group “Splin”. If you are meticulous enough and understand at least something about genealogy, you will find an amazing fact: the musician and the artist are distant relatives.
And, if enough is known about the first, then rather meager information can be found about the second. Thus, K. Vasiliev wrote on a special, heroic theme. The Great Patriotic War, the past of Kievan Rus, the heroic cycle - all this was reflected in his special worldview. The paintings “Parade of '41”, “Longing for the Motherland”, “Farewell of a Slav” have an almost tangible sound. If you look closely at the work “Invasion”, you will see how skillfully the artist depicted the fear of loss and hope for the best, human faith and unbelief.
The main motives of the painting “Invasion” are the feelings of fear, grief and death. It seems that there are no barriers to conquerors. However, in the author’s interpretation, this is not silence, but calm. The views of the saints from ancient frescoes seem to warn that the conquerors, although they conquered half the world, will not be able to capture Holy Rus'.
The idea of the painting was nurtured by the artist for quite a long time. Vasiliev rewrote the canvas several times, and from the original multi-figure composition with the battle of the Teutonic Order with the Slavs depicted on it, only the ideological meaning remained. The battle scenes were abolished, leaving only the spiritual struggle and ideological and symbolic conflict.
The key image for this work by Vasiliev is the word “invasion” itself. As a rule, this definition is used to denote the invasion of enemies into a country, and a huge number of enemies. This is the lexical meaning of the word, which carries the deepest implications. The picture could be called simply “War”, but you can fight for what is dear, for what is sacred. The very semantics of the word “war” carries with it sadness, cruelty and death. However, people can fight to defend their beliefs and desire for a better life. The word “invasion” in no way reflects the defense of beliefs; it simply becomes synonymous with brute, senseless force. Invasion most often means uncontrollability, unconsciousness and spontaneity. In addition, the invasion symbolizes something that is difficult to stop.
In order to better understand the ideological meaning of the picture, it is worth remembering the peculiarities of the use of this word in the Russian language: the invasion of the Tatar-Mongol horde, the invasion of Napoleon, the invasion of enemies and even the invasion of locusts. Try to say these phrases out loud, and you will understand that you are talking about a strong, terrible and inevitable event.
Considering the coloristic features of “Invasion”, it is impossible not to notice that the main color in the picture is gray. This shade colors the ground, fires, clouds and even images of saints. As a rule, gray is a dull, sad and sad symbol of human life. The psychological characteristics of gray color are to create a state of despondency, sadness and sadness. Only this shade can create a depressing mood and a feeling of heaviness. Gray is monotony, tragedy and indescribable sadness.
The stormy gray tones of the picture cannot help but intensify the depressive state. Yes, and he has a place to appear from: ruins against the background of a lead-gray sky, the faces of saints with inhuman sorrow in their eyes. The entire canvas is covered by a single auditory image - silence, heavy and ominous. The only thing that can be heard in the silence is the march of the enemy army along the road.
Vasiliev seems to be pushing us to divide the world into two parts. On the right side it depicts an army of invaders, or rather a horde. They seem endless and have filled part of this world. On the left we see the devastation that has affected one of the main human shrines - the temple. Look at the sky: it is gray with shades of blue and dirty purple streaks. Where there is a gap between the clouds, pale, even deathly pale reflections peek through.
There are only two symbols on the canvas in front of us. The ruined Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra with the remains of the faces of saints remains a stronghold of faith and hope in Rus'. They sternly closed their lips and offered prayers to God, hoping that he would save people’s lives. The second symbol is destruction, which reflects the iron horde of invaders.
The destroyed temple in “Invasion” is scary in itself. Vasiliev paints a desecrated shrine that once gave people moral support, consolation and hope for a better life. Temples, as we know, have always been in the minds of Russian people an important part of their cultural heritage, since they were erected in honor of an important event and were significant for history. Now all that remains of it are silent witnesses - figures of saints, symbolizing not only universal sorrow, but also the spiritual strength of people. Christian martyrs against the backdrop of the invasion are not just faces, they are judges who reward everyone according to their deeds.
Vasiliev’s painting creates a mood, but does not answer many of the viewer’s questions. For example, it will not say why hordes of conquerors moved to Rus', but it will sharpen the sense of justice. The viewer involuntarily begins to believe in its triumph, in the fact that the people can survive even in a terrible time for them. Many, despite the atmosphere of fear created by the artist, do not experience it, but on the contrary, they know that everything will end soon. There is, of course, pain for your loved ones, for destruction and death, but the faces of Christian saints can give hope: if they survived, people will survive.
The painting “Invasion” is very important for nurturing not only patriotic feelings, but also for strengthening faith. As a rule, it inspires a lot, and a person who believes cannot be defeated.
Another aspect of "Invasion" is one of caution. Vasiliev's painting shows that the conquerors invaded Rus' and could do so again. The artist encourages us to think about the future, especially in modern, far from peaceful times.