Shugrin Anatoly Ivanovich

Painter, sculptor, graphic artist At an early stage of his creative work, the artist tried himself in theatrical and decorative art; in painting he followed the traditions of the Moscow school. The formation of his creative individuality was seriously influenced by M.K. Sokolov, who taught at the State College of Fine Arts in memory of the 1905 Uprising (now the Moscow State Academy of Arts in memory of 1905), where Shugrin studied in 1925–1930. Shugrin maintained friendly relations with this outstanding master, who was subjected to repression during the Stalinist years, until his death. However, this was not the only impulse - Shugrin was seriously interested in the art of Western Europe, both old masters and the latest movements, especially Italy and France: the work of A. Modigliani, P. Picasso, A. Derain, A. Matisse, J. Rouault, G. Morandi, G. De Chirico. Among his Moscow colleagues, he highly valued P. Kuznetsov, A. Tyshler, N. Sinezubov. Since the late 1920s, Shugrin was a member of creative associations and worked on orders. What has survived to this day are mostly photographic reproductions of paintings he executed during the Great Patriotic War, when the artist served in the Red Army: military landscapes, portraits of historical figures, contemporary scientific and cultural figures. Having joined the Moscow Union of Artists in 1945, Shugrin kept himself apart in the professional environment and did not adhere to any particular direction. In the post-war years, he taught drawing at Moscow Art School No. 1 and the Stroganov School, and was considered an outstanding teacher. According to the recollections of his students, remembering the sad experience of M.K. Sokolov, Shugrin did not strive to exhibit, but showed his new works at home to a narrow circle of friends. Most of the artist's early works were destroyed during the war, which makes it difficult to analyze his creative evolution. However, experts believe that an important period of experimentation with color, form, and texture by the master, who gravitated towards decorativeism and expression, began at the turn of the 1930s and 1940s. His painting became flat and slightly geometric and acquired a complex and intense coloring. Later abstract collages and sculpture echo the non-objective art of the 1910s and 1920s. All this subsequently made it possible to talk about Shugrin as a successor to the traditions of the avant-garde. The artist’s figurative system, apparently, was formed in his youth and over the years it was only plastically transformed and reconstructed. The subjects of many paintings were translated into reliefs and round plastic and returned to painting. Shugrin varied the same motifs - interior scenes, family portraits, images of children and nudes, idyllic walks in the parks. The dating of many works remains controversial: the artist did not indicate the time of creation and did not give names to his works, returning to them several times. It was as if he left the possibility of a multi-valued and free interpretation of his work.