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Sergey Dmitrievich Merkurov (Russian: Серге́й Дми́триевич Мерку́ров, 7 November [O.S. 26 October] 1881 – 8 June 1952) was a prominent Soviet sculptor-monumentalist of Greek-Armenian descent.[1] He was a People's Artist of the USSR, an academic at the Soviet Academy of Arts,[2] and director of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts from 1944 to 1949. Merkurov was considered the greatest Soviet master of post-mortem masks.[3][4] He was the sculptor of the three biggest monuments of Joseph Stalin in the USSR.[5]

Sergey Merkurov
A 1981 Soviet stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of Sergey Merkurov's birth
Born(1881-11-07)7 November 1881
Alexandropol, Russian Empire
(today Gyumri, Armenia)
Died8 June 1952(1952-06-08) (aged 70)
Moscow, Soviet Union
NationalityRussian, Soviet
StyleSocialist realism

He was the cousin of George Gurdjieff, a mystic and spiritual teacher.[6]


Biography


2006 Armenian stamp featuring Sergey Merkurov and his 1907 work
2006 Armenian stamp featuring Sergey Merkurov and his 1907 work

Sergey Merkurov was born in Alexandrapol (modern Gyumri, Armenia). He left the Kiev Polytechnic Institute after a political scandal and moved to Switzerland, where he became a student of the Swiss sculptor Adolf Meyer. He attended art college in Germany (1902–1905) and then entered the Auguste Rodin studio in Paris.

Merkurov had met Vladimir Lenin when the revolutionary leader was living abroad, and listened to his speeches. Among many others, the statue of Lenin that stood in Lenin Square, Yerevan during Soviet times also was the work of Merkurov.

Merkurov returned to the Russian Empire in 1907 as he was called by the Armenian Apostolic Church authorities to execute a post-mortem mask of Catholicos Mkrtich Khrimian. It was his first work of this kind. Then he lived in Tbilisi, Yalta, Moscow, and made post-mortem (death) masks of Leo Tolstoy, Hovhannes Tumanyan, Vladimir Lenin and his wife, Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Mayakovsky and other famous people. The technique itself is not an easy process. The author pours plaster on the body's face and puts a thread in the middle of it. Then, another material like bronze or plaster is poured inside the mask and this is how an actual-size face of the deceased results.[4]

Merkurov was an outstanding representative of academic modern style, employing the themes of death and stone blocks. As a philosopher of the arts, Merkurov also used motifs of thought (Monument of Dostoevsky, 1911–1913; The figure-portrait of Thought, 1918).

Merkurov was known as a free-thinker and an extraordinary person. He was a member of the "United Workers' Brotherhood", the Association of Painters of Revolutionary Russia and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

As director of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, he saved the monument of Catherine the Great and secretly sent it to Yerevan, where it was hidden for decades and finally returned to Russia in 2006.[7]

For Joseph Stalin's 70th birthday, Merkurov made a special gift, a costly granite monument called "Death of the Leader". Stalin refused to accept it and a difficult period in the sculptor's life began.[8]

Merkurov was honored with burial at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. In 1953 his Notes of a Sculptor was published.


Merkurov Museum in Gyumri


In 1984 the Merkurov Museum was opened in his family house in Gyumri. The post-mortem masks of 59 Soviet leaders and famous people are displayed in the museum, including the only original death mask of Lenin.


References


  1. Rosenberg, Suzanne (1991). A Soviet odyssey. Toronto: Penguin. p. 55. ISBN 9780140129274.
  2. "Меркуров С.Д. (in Russian)". Monulent.ru. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
  3. "Скульптор Сергей Меркуров". Deathmask.kiev.ua. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
  4. Vladica, Viorica (27 June 2003) Art of the Departed: Gyumri museum houses rare, if creepy, death masks. armenianow.com
  5. "Меркуров, Сергей Дмитриевич". Krugosvet.ru. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
  6. Grossman, Vasily (2013). An Armenian Sketchbook. New York Review of Books. p. 127. ISBN 9781590176351.
  7. Торжество Екатерины (in Russian). Российская газета, №3977. 23 January 2006. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
  8. Заголовок комментария (13 July 2014). "Сергей Меркуров, Дорогой подарок". Peoples.ru. Retrieved 17 July 2014.



На других языках


[de] Sergei Dmitrijewitsch Merkurow

Sergei Dmitrijewitsch Merkurow (russisch Сергей Дмитриевич Меркуров; * 26. Oktoberjul. / 7. November 1881greg. in Alexandropol; † 8. Juni 1952 in Moskau) war ein griechisch-russischer Bildhauer.[1][2]
- [en] Sergey Merkurov

[es] Serguéi Merkúrov

Serguéi Dmítriyevich Merkúrov, en ruso Сергей Дмитриевич Меркуров ( * según el calendario juliano el 26 de octubre, y de acuerdo con el calendario gregoriano, el 7 de noviembre de 1881, en Alexandrapol, actual Gyumri - † 8 de junio de 1952, Moscú) - fue un escultor monumentalista de la Unión Soviética, de ascendencia griega de Armenia. Artista del Pueblo de la URSS (1943), miembro de la Academia de las Artes de la URSS (1947) y director del Museo Pushkin de Moscú de 1944 a 1949. Merkúrov fue considerado el más grande maestro soviético de las máscaras post mortem.[1][2]

[fr] Sergueï Merkourov

Sergueï Dmitrievitch Merkourov, en russe : Серге́й Дми́триевич Мерку́ров, né le 7 novembre 1881 à Alexandropol et mort le 8 juin 1952 à Moscou, est un sculpteur soviétique d'ascendance grecque-arménienne[1]. Il a réalisé plusieurs statues monumentales à Erevan dont certaines aujourd'hui détruites (celles de Lénine et de Staline notamment). Il a réalisé les trois plus imposants monuments dédiés à Staline en URSS[2]. Par ailleurs, il était membre de l'académie soviétique des beaux-arts[3] et directeur du musée Pouchkine de 1944 à 1949.

[it] Sergej Dmitrievič Merkurov

Sergej Dmitrievič Merkurov, oppure Sergey Dmitrievich Merkurov (in russo: Серге́й Дми́триевич Мерку́ров?; Gyumri, 7 novembre 1881 – Mosca, 8 giugno 1952), è stato uno scultore russo.

[ru] Меркуров, Сергей Дмитриевич

Серге́й Дми́триевич Мерку́ров (1881—1952) — советский, российский скульптор-монументалист, академик АХ СССР (1947), народный художник СССР (1943), лауреат двух Сталинских премий первой степени (1941, 1951).



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