ALEXEY ISUPOV. RUSSIA-ITALY.
Alexey Vladimirovich was born on March 10 (22), 1889 in Vyatka into the family of an iconostasis master, woodcarver and gilder Vladimir Petrovich Isupov. The work of the father, communication with icon painters aroused in the future artist interest in creativity. His first teachers were the “Kazan shop painter” Anastasii Maksimovich Chernogorov and Vasily Ivanovich Krotov, who came to Vyatka with the artel of paleeshan to paint the Assumption Cathedral of the Trifonov monastery. Under their leadership, the young man studied icon painting and painting.
Traction to independent creativity arose in him under the influence of the Vyatka landscape painter Nikolai Nikolaevich Khokhryakov. Apollinary Mikhailovich Vasnetsov, also a native of Vyatka, also took the most active part in the fate of a young man. The first works of Isupov began to appear at art exhibitions that had opened in Vyatka since 1903, and this prompted him to go to Moscow to study. Parents objected because they could not support his son financially. But, having recovered funds from the sale of etudes, Alexey in 1908 nevertheless entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.
Vasnetsov warmly welcomed the gifted countryman, in which he won over a great desire to learn. Apollinary Mikhailovich paid Isupov “special attention, often summoning him to the evening cup of tea to talk about art, broaden his horizons … gradually brought him into the circle of artists, arranged some earnings” 1.
It was not easy for a young man from the provinces to understand all the phenomena of the intensive cultural life of Moscow. Preparing for exams at MUZHVZ, Alexey attended the school-studio I.I. Mashkova and A.N. Mikhailovsky, where he often became a witness of noisy disputes about art. Sharp studio disputes strengthened Isupov’s desire to comprehend the basics of artistic mastery. He went to museums, read a lot and pondered. The young man was admired by the paintings of MA Vrubel, V.A. Serova, V.D. Polenova, K.A. Korovin, I.I. Levitan was struck by the quintessence of light in the painting of F.A. Malyavina. The attention of Isupov and the work of French artists from the collections of I.A. Shchukin and S.I. Morozov, which he saw at exhibitions.During his studies, Isupov presented his landscapes at exhibitions of the Union of Russian Artists. Already in the early works of his outstanding artistic talent, a subtle understanding of the natural beauty of nature. The works of the period of study in MUZHVZ reveal the range of perception by the artist of the real world. Subtle tonal development of the landscape environment in the painting The Courtyard in the Province (1910) allowed him to convey the impression of moisture-filled clouds and melting snow. In the aliaprima technique “Monastery” (1910), Isupov achieved a picturesque integrity due to the harmonious balance of the dark green of the earth and the white monastic buildings, introduced bright red, pink-yellow, blue spots that enhance the sound of color. The epic image of Russian nature was created by him in the Northern Landscape (1911). In the general monochrome tone of the full austere grandeur and silence of the opening distant lands, the openwork silhouettes of yellowed birch trees are perceived by a discreet contrast. Using some of the techniques of decorative painting, the artist sought to coloristic tension in the picture.
After graduating from college in 1912, Alexey Vladimirovich traveled to the Urals. In 1915, he was mobilized into the army and sent to Tashkent. Some paintings written in Central Asia are a kind of response to the events of the First World War (Easter Night, 1916; In the Infirmary, 1917), but military themes still did not find a successful incarnation in Isupov’s works. However, during this period, wonderful landscapes appeared in which he told “about the bright and harmonious world that reigned in the artist’s soul, about the joy that the poetic phenomenon of being born in him” 3. At the end of 1917, Isupov was released from military service for health reasons. Alexey Vladimirovich managed to go to Moscow, visit his homeland and create a number of lyrical landscapes. Observing the state of the atmosphere, he was looking for precise tonal-color relations, trying to convey the color nature of objects and certainty of forms, depending on the lighting, to identify the features of the spatial environment (Peasant with a Cart, 1917; Evening Landscape, 1918; At a monastery mill “, 1918;” Old Moscow. Neskuchny garden “, 1918). At the same time, Isupov began to master the genres of portrait and still life.
In May 1918, the artist returned to Tashkent. The years spent in Turkestan became very fruitful. Tamara Nikolaevna Isupova (wife) noted that “Turkestan was a wonderful land for real creativity Isupova, having a Russian school, he found here everything he was looking for, light, sun, shadow … it turned out to be brilliant, not comparable to anyone poetry, colors and paints “In numerous paintings of the Central Asian period, his own understanding of the East was revealed. Studying national types, life, clothes, utensils, the artist expanded the scope of his works: portrayed noisy bazaars, teahouses, forges, scenes on the streets, architectural monuments. Enriched and palette Isupova. In the paintings “The Market at the Samarkand Mosque” and “Samarkand” (both – 1921) bright sunlight was skillfully conveyed, softening the outlines of objects and making the emerald-blue tones in tiles, red, yellow, purple spots intensely sound, in people’s clothes. In the landscapes written in short, quick strokes, the master recreates the effect of air vibration, the feeling of glowing reflexes. Here he more consistently refers to plein-impressionistic painting.
Living in Central Asia, Alexey Vladimirovich was not limited to direct observations of the surrounding life. Active as an artist and head of the art section of the Commission for the restoration and protection of monuments of Samarkand allowed him to expand his knowledge in the field of restoration, archeology, history and literature.
