Ivan Kotov is a famous Soviet artist who lived and worked in the second half of the twentieth century. The painter died 20 years ago, but his work is still of interest, and his paintings are regularly exhibited at various exhibitions.
Biography
Kotov Ivan Semenovich was born in the village of Zaprudnoye, which is located in the Kozelsky district near Kaluga. It happened on June 7, 1923. In his small homeland, the future painter graduated from elementary high school. After - he entered the Ivanovo art school.
In 1941, when World War II broke out, Ivan had just finished the first year of the school. The young man went through the entire war, having met the Great Victory at the front. There, at the front, in the battles of the soldiers Kotov distinguished himself, having received the Order of the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree. It is known that the future painter from September 1941 to October 1942 fought on the Southwestern Front with the rank of a mortarman of the 53rd Infantry Regiment. During the retreat from Kharkov to Stalingrad, a soldier of the Red Army was taken prisoner. The Nazis sent the young man to the Galensee camps, then to Grunewald in Germany. In April 1945, the prisoner was freed by Soviet troops. After the liberation, Kotov continued to serve in the 4th separate tank training regiment in Czechoslovakia, Austria and Germany.
After the war, Ivan Kotov left for the city of Voroshilovgrad, where he got a job as an artist in the local House of Officers. After demobilization, in 1947, Ivan continued his education at an art school, graduating in 1950. After that, for seven years - from 1950 to 1957, the painter worked as a drawing teacher at the Kargopol Pedagogical School. It was there, in the Russian North, that the talent of a painter was born. Folk art, architecture of houses and ancient churches touched his soul and splashed out onto the canvas (see the section "Creativity"). In Kargopol, Kotov began to combine teaching and creativity. Until the end of his life, Ivan Semenovich called this place his second homeland.
In the early 1960s, the artist became famous, his work began to be exhibited at exhibitions. In 1960, paintings by Ivan Kotov appeared at the republican exhibition "Soviet Russia", which was held in Moscow. The artist presented to the viewer one of the first subject paintings "To School", which immediately won success and great recognition.
In 1957, Kotov moved to Arkhangelsk. There, a new theme appeared in the artist's work - white nights. Meeting of the White Nights, dedicated to this miracle of northern nature, folk festivals, has become one of his best works. One of the artist's comrades, Stepan Pisakhov, impressed by the paintings, told him: "You are the Levitan of the North." This very canvas was immediately accepted for the 1960 Republican Exhibition. It was bought by the Ministry of Culture, today "Meeting of White Nights" is kept in the collection of the Voronezh Picture Gallery.
In 1978, at the invitation of the commander of the Northern Navy, Admiral V. N. Chernavin, Kotov went to the Arctic. He was invited to work on the naval theme on the eve of the All-Union exhibition "Blue Roads of the Motherland". Meetings with sailors from the North Sea gave the artist not only themes for paintings, but also a real male friendship. It was then that the idea arose to write a series of paintings "Kola Land". In Severomorsk, he lectured on fine arts, consulted aspiring artists. And of course I wrote a lot myself.
Ivan Semenovich Kotov, which does not happen often, received recognition from the viewer and critics during his lifetime. He was loved, his talent was respected. For about thirty years he worked in the Arkhangelsk organization of the Union of Artists. The master died at the age of 66. It happened on November 30, 1989.
Today the artist's works are in the museums of Arkhangelsk and Kargopol. Ivan Kotov's paintings are also kept in the storerooms of art galleries in Moscow, Voronezh, Kursk and Tver.
Creativity, contribution to art
Three directions can be traced in the work of Ivan Kotov - a portrait of a Soviet worker, a military theme and a landscape.
“I have never constrained myself with the limits of any one picture in one genre, I wrote what attracted me, I wrote, as they say, at the behest of my soul,” Ivan Semyonovich said about his work. “But, probably, the very specific nature of the work on the landscape helped me a lot in the work on the genre painting and the portrait.”
The portrait takes a significant place in the work of Kotov. It was with him that in 1954 the success of a newly emerging artist began. Then Kotov he successfully performed at an exhibition of works by artists of the North, where he presented his works "Portrait of a collective farmer Makarov" and "Portrait of a student." Later, from under his brush appeared the most magnificent portraits of milkmaids, calves, shepherds - ordinary people from the provinces. Of all such works, the most famous is the "Portrait of the Pomor Vasily Golubin". This picture, depicting a fisherman from the North, was included in all famous publications, was exhibited at numerous exhibitions, including the republican one in 1965.
Over the years, Ivan Kotov has worked on historical themes, military paintings. Since the mid-1960s, he painted a number of canvases united by this theme - "Bread for the Front" and "To Liberated Leningrad".
The greatest fame to Ivan Semenovich was brought by his landscapes. Moreover, a large array of works is represented by paintings of northern nature that captivated the audience. These Kotovsky landscapes are distinguished by light lyrics, transparent and soft colors, airiness and spirituality.
“I was forever fascinated by the strict beauty of the North, I want to tell about it the way you tell your faithful friend about the most intimate,” said the painter himself. Kotov's works are distinguished by love for Russian nature in any of its conditions. Autumn muddy roads, road mud and gray fields, rural outskirts of the village - all this he found beautiful, Ivan Semenovich knew how to convey the beauty of dull nature on canvas ("Morning fog", "Autumn bad weather").
Memories of contemporaries
Contemporaries say: the famous Ivan Kotov worked a lot, painstakingly and meticulously, rewriting what he had written many times. For example, the painting "Song Festival", which has also become famous, he created for five years. In the process, creating and altering the composition of the future canvas, the painter made almost 500 sketches. Work on any other painting was going on in the same way.
