Silver Composition by Alexey Baranov "Woland"

Here is the English translation of your text: He was born in Leningrad on May 26, 1947. He graduated from the Secondary Central Art School named after Johannson at the Academy of Arts. The school was located within the walls of the Academy, and graduates of that generation were called "Tsekhashatniki." Entry into the Central Art School (TsKhSh) was from the 5th grade; before that, he attended the Palace of Pioneers. After TsKhSh, he entered the Tavricheskoye Art College. There were two faculties there: painting and decorative-applied arts. The program lasted five years. In terms of level, it was the third art institution in Leningrad, after the Academy and the Mukhin Institute (Mukhinskoye). In 1968 it was named after the president of the USSR Academy of Arts, V.A. Serov, and now bears the name of N.K. Roerich. The institution's level has now fallen to that of a lyceum, if not a vocational school (PTU). In 1971, after graduating from the Serov Art College, he was assigned to work in Yaroslavl as the chief artist of the puppet theater. He wanted to break free from his parents’ supervision. In one year, he staged three performances. Upon returning to Leningrad, he worked for two years at the Painting and Art Combine under the Art Fund. Then, from 1971 to 1977, he studied at the Leningrad Higher School of Art and Industry named after V.I. Mukhina, in the architectural and decorative faculty. His specialty was sculpture, with a focus on small-scale sculpture. He began studying art at the age of 6, and was always engaged in modeling/sculpting. Already at the Palace of Pioneers, he was a winner of a city exhibition. He counts his years of study as 19. His teachers: his first was his father. At the Art School — the famous graphic artist Yuri Alekseevich Vasnetsov; at the Palace of Pioneers — Ekaterina Ivanovna Popova; at the Central Art School — Valentina Nikolaevna Kitaygorodskaya; at Tavricheskoye College — Lev Konstantinovich Valts; at the Mukhin Institute — professors Valentina Alekseevna Rybalko (wife of E.E. Moiseenko), Pyotr Fyodorovich Kulikov, Anton Gordeevich Dema, and teacher Pavel Antonovich Yakimovich. All were sculptors. Among sculptors from Petersburg, I will mention Pavel Pavlovich Vandyshev (born 1937) and his wife Ekaterina Volkova. Both graduated from the Mukhin Institute and worked at "Russian Gems," as did the sculptor Rybka.Certainly! Here is the English translation of your text: --- Grandfather worked at the Leningrad Porcelain Factory, painting, gilding. The other grandfather was an engineer. Geichenko, born 1901. Childhood memories, letter from the Old Believers at the Academy of Arts in his hands. Father and his brother had a house in Peterhof, the village of Luizino. Dostoevsky: “Many civilians like to write about military affairs, and generals like to reason about enlightenment.” Mikhail Bulgakov: “He has golden hands—whatever he takes up, he breaks.” Chess. Ashikhmin, maternal grandfather. In 1915, senior accountant in the security service of the State Duma. Part of the family moved to England. Grandfather said: “Strive to be, rather than to seem.” Now: “a game of the past, of a ‘former’ life.” “Déjà vu.” Hungary, looked at the walls. Writer and ideas. Stephen King (b. 1947). “Where does time go?” Metaphysics of Petersburg. The position of the Soviet person. “Skomorokhs” (minstrels/fools). In 1986 brought up for parasitism, as a poet Brodsky Member of the Union of Artists since 1990. “Sculpture in small forms is a cascade of ideas.” (from a creative autobiography) Small cast silver figurines have always been a favorite decoration in interiors. Today, works by Russian masters of jewelry sculpture from the second half of the 19th to the early 20th centuries, created in a realistic manner, are of exceptional interest. Antique dealers around the world make great efforts to acquire small-scale sculptural compositions from the Fabergé, Khlebnikov, Sazikov, Ovchinnikov, Grachev Brothers, and other firms. The glorious traditions of famous Russian masters in our day find a remarkable reflection in the unique silver sculpture works of Alexey Baranov. Collection se --- (The sentence "Коллекция се" appears incomplete.) Let me know if you need more context or details!Here is the translation of your text into English: The range of Baranov’s silver miniatures is extensive and diverse. Here you will find beloved heroes of Russian folklore, recognizable literary characters, and touching figurines of various animals. But particularly vivid and expressive are the sculptural groups from the series “Scenes of Folk Life” created by the master. It is in these pieces that the fidelity to the traditions of Russian realistic art is most clearly felt. Connoisseurs of jewelry sculpture are already familiar with the magnificent works in this genre created by Alexey Baranov in previous years: these are the compositions Cunning Caresses, Tenderness, All for the Home, and others. In each of these works, their author, member of the Russian Artists’ Union, sculptor Alexey Georgievich Baranov, as well as the makers Sergey Vladimirov, M.Kh. Kattaev, V.A. Kirillov, and A.I. Korenkov, have shown a rare ability to create vibrant artistic images through plastic forms and silver casting, making them accessible and understandable to the viewer. These qualities became even more evident in Baranov’s new works, also created with the same creative team: in the genre compositions Tea Drinking and Kamarinskaya, and in the figurines of hunters – The Dashing One, The Marksman, and The Cunning One. Unusually full-bodied and colorful, all these works literally breathe the poetry of folk life. This feeling is especially vivid in the desktop two-figure composition Kamarinskaya. In this work, the silver figurines set on a brightly polished jade pedestal depict a jaunty dancing couple. The dress of the female dancer swirling in the whirlwind of the dance and the swaggering pose of the cheerful harmonica player convey the irrepressible energy of movement, as if obeying the rhythms of a fiery folk dance. The dynamics of the composition are further enhanced by deep contrasts of light and shadow. Brilliantly executed by sculptor Baranov, Kamarinskaya literally radiates the vitality and reckless spirit of the Russian national character. Typically folk images are presented to us in the series of miniature silver sculpt...Tour “Hunters.” Each of them has its own character: Dashing, who is proud of his hunting successes; Mazila, embarrassed by an unlucky shot; and Sly, a crafty dreamer. With warm humor and using realistic modeling of forms, the author conveys the expressions and poses of his characters, employing diverse textured finishes of metal and meticulously recreating their clothing and equipment, as well as faithfully depicting their loyal companions — hunting dogs. Creating such colorful images with the methods of sculpture and embodying them in metal is a great art, and Alexey Baranov possesses it impeccably. In the artistic design of the multifaceted genre composition “Tea Party,” a modern view of the traditional life of our ancestors is felt, at once sad and cheerful, condescending and loving. The sculpture depicts a merchant and his wife sitting at a tea table, with a cat and a dog playing at their feet. The intrigue of the plot evokes associations with the famous paintings of Boris Kustodiev. With the same heartfelt warmth and kind smile, the atmosphere and numerous attributes of merchant life are conveyed. It seems as if you have inadvertently become a witness to an intimate family scene, whose main characters are genuinely Russian types, dressed in outfits characteristic of their social class. The plasticity of the figures, skillfully highlighted with oxidized details, is rendered expressively and with great attention to detail. With the same painstaking care, all the objects on the table are depicted: a table covered with a green jade tablecloth; chairs with seatings made from red jasper, inlaid with mother-of-pearl; a silver samovar with gilded handles and spout; dishes made of the whitest quartz; golden bagels and cookies made of chalcedony; “amber” honey from orange carnelian. The entire scene is given a special homey atmosphere by a plinth decorated with petrified wood, reproducing the pattern of marquetry parquet. Silver and colored stone complement each other, giving the piece new colors and a unique vibrancy.Here is the translation of your text into English: --- ...spite its abundance of details, the sculpture creates a cohesive and vivid impression. Without a doubt, "The Tea Party" is a masterfully executed, original work of art. In the miniature silver sculptures of Alexey Baranov, the complex yet extraordinarily expressive art of jewelry plasticity reaches the highest artistic level. In them, mature skill is combined with a fresh interpretation of the theme, the artistry of the plastic forms with a truly jeweler’s finishing of the details. And it can be said with confidence that, in this kind of artistic creation, Alexey Baranov currently has no equal. Thoughts on the Matter The Ural stone-cutters represent a direction of pure craft. Boring. Mannequins dressed up in a local history museum. Recent works (“The World of Stone,” December 2006): a dull Cowboy — neither cheerful, nor funny, nor frightening — just nothing. There’s no authorial attitude. The fate of these things is to appreciate in value. A good investment in stone. The craft is there, the guys can handle stone. They work with weak professional model-makers. They were taught to cut stone; the carving becomes the goal, but in fact, it is just a means. There are no good, competent models. Stone has tremendous possibilities. The intellectual underdevelopment is striking; the intellect is not working. There is no understanding of mythology, yet mythology is not simply biblical subjects. The object should be a toy for the mind. The European approach is the creator, the artist, the sculptor. You need to know plasticity, to sculpt from life. The principle is about how the thing is made. People ask: "What should I give as a gift?" In Europe, they pay attention to zodiac signs, to the Eastern calendar, and they weave in a mythological plot. Therefore, it is necessary to know in which month the person was born, the person to whom the gift is intended, which stones are "indicated" for that person (a medical term). To see the image of the person for whom the...Here is your translated text: A gift is a sign. Here is a statuette of Leda and the egg she laid after her encounter with the Swan. As is known, there are two twins inside the egg. But I am also a Gemini according to the horoscope. This is my gift. Sometimes people intentionally make a gift out of a stone that is contraindicated (when the gift is meant to spite the recipient). We are making a treasure, and this must not be forgotten. A treasure should have a secret, a mystery, a myth that will be passed down through generations in the family. I am creating an object which, over time, will grow into a legend. This legend, together with the jewelry item, will be handed down as an inheritance. Shimansky reads books, that’s good, because there is philosophy in things. Are there similar figurines in the West? Not now, but that’s because all this has already existed there. For example, in Florence. Compared to Western culture, we are children, and that is why our items are curious to foreigners—they have forgotten their own jewelry history.