Sphinxes are monuments to victims of political repression. Anatoly Migov

Monument to Peter I in the Peter and Paul Fortress, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Russia. (The author's copy is located in Claverack, USA) 1991.

The lifetime mask of Peter I, made by sculptor Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli in 1719, was used in the work on the monument. Peter, sitting in a large bronze chair with armrests, looks unusual and even mysterious. Based on the works of B.K. Rastrelli, Mikhail Shemyakin created a complex, contradictory image, far from the prototypes and making one think about the tragic history of the city and the country. The appearance of the sculptural composition expresses Shemyakin’s understanding of Peter’s personality. Its features emphasize vitality, informality, psychology, and metaphysical nakedness. On the side plane of the pedestal there is an author’s inscription: “To the Founder of the Great City of Russia, Emperor Peter the Great, from the Italian sculptor Carlo Rastrelli and from the Russian artist Mikhail Shemyakin. 1991 Cast in America"

“In the manner of great monumental sculpture, Shemyakina’s majestic Peter engulfs the very air in which he dwells and captures it in his seated timelessness. In this absorption of space, sound is also removed from its bronze surroundings and hidden inside this wonderful Peter, in whose sitting pose nobility and deep nobility are revealed.” Leonid Baskin 1991.

A unique monument, the fame of which has already spread throughout the world, during its existence it has turned into a kind of curiosity for foreigners and guests of the city. Despite the relatively small “age” of the monument, city traditions have already appeared around it: St. Petersburg residents and guests of the city often touch Peter’s bronze hands and feet - for good luck. Newlyweds also come to the monument to lay flowers at its foot.

Monument to “Victims of Political Repression” (Metaphysical Sphinxes)

Monument to the “Victims of Political Repression” (Metaphysical Sphinxes). St. Petersburg, Russia 1995

The monument is a gift from the artist M.M. Shemyakin to his hometown of St. Petersburg. The sculptures of metaphysical sphinxes were created by Shemyakin in 1994. The place for the monument was symbolically chosen opposite the famous Leningrad prison “Crosses”, where prisoners languished during the years of Stalin’s repressions. Installed opposite the Kresty prison, famous for its dark history, the sphinxes are not just one of the city’s sculptures. Their faces - half human, half rotten skulls - are the personification of the brutal Stalinist regime.

Monument to the “Primary Architects of St. Petersburg”

Monument to the Architects-Prime Builders of St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg, Russia 1995

Materials: pink granite, polished - architectural volume; bronze - applied reliefs, sculptural composition; brass - overhead text boards. Height - 500 cm. The monument was built in the Sampsonievsky Garden (formerly the Karl Marx Garden) near the Sampsonievsky Cathedral, on the site where there were two cemeteries - Orthodox (the first in St. Petersburg) and “German” (foreign).

The granite arch of the monument, crossed by a cross, is oriented towards the perspective of Sampsonievsky Cathedral, resembling a window (a symbolic image of St. Petersburg). In front of the “window” on the east side there is a bronze table with a map of St. Petersburg, a candlestick, a pipe and a skull on it. A bronze chair was placed nearby (the model was authentic Dutch furniture from the 17th century). On the eastern side of the arch there is a bronze medallion with a portrait of Peter the Great on top, and on the abutments of the arch there are eight bas-reliefs by Mikhail Shemyakin (copies of medals from Peter’s time, portraits of D. Trezzini and F.B. Rastrelli, metaphysical compositions).

Monument to the 200th anniversary of the death of Giacomo Casanova

Monument to the 200th anniversary of the death of Giacomo Casanova, erected in front of the Doge's Palace, Venice, Italy. 1998

The bronze composition is dedicated to the famous writer Giacomo Casanova, who died two hundred years ago far from his beloved Venice. The figure of Casanova froze on a Venetian balcony, carefully holding a mechanical doll by the hand. The role of honorary sentries of History is played by six-breasted sphinxes located on the sides of the brilliant adventurer. Each of the pedestals is decorated with a bronze mask, developing the theme of the theater of life.

Tombstone of S. Kramarov

Tombstone for S. Kramarov, San Francisco, 1999.

In San Francisco (USA), at the Jewish memorial cemetery, there is a monument to the actor Savely Kramarov, created by his friend the artist Mikhail Shemyakin: a dressing room table with masks of tragic roles he did not play and a book with the names of his best films (“My Friend, Kolka”, “The Elusive Avengers” ,

“Gentlemen of Fortune”, “Twelve Chairs”, “Big Change”). On the left is a curtain, on the right is a portrait of Kramarov, which no one has seen before - a kind and sad smile of a man laughing at the turns of his own fate.

Tombstone of M.V. Manevich

Tombstone of M.V. Manevich, St. Petersburg, 1999. (arr. V.B. Bukhaev)

In St. Petersburg, on the Literatorskie Mostki, a tombstone monument to M.V. Manevich (vice-governor of St. Petersburg, 1996-1997). The sculptor is Mikhail Shemyakin, the architect is his constant collaborator Vyacheslav Bukhaev. Among the tombstones stands a two-meter granite ball. He, like an extinguished star that fell on the sinful earth, breaks himself and breaks the slab on which he landed. Traces of bullets and a bronze medallion with a portrait of Mikhail Manevich clarify the symbolism.

Monument to Professor Harold Uecker "Plato's Dialogue with Socrates"

Monument to Professor Harold Uecker "Plato's Dialogue with Socrates." Hofstra University, Hampstead, NY New York, USA. 1999

Monument to professor of philosophy and psychology Uecker, installed at the ancient Hofstra University, founded by the Dutch, opposite the building of the Faculty of Philosophy. His favorite thinkers, Socrates and Plato, are depicted (Plato talking with a bust of Socrates). In the monument, Plato sits at a table and points with his finger at a ball with an all-seeing eye. The ball rests on a book and on a bronze manuscript recording the names of famous philosophers of all times and peoples. Opposite the table at which Plato sits is a bronze column. Now students sit on it and, as it were, enter into a dialogue with geniuses.

Monument to Peter the Great in Dettford

Monument to Peter the Great in Dettford, London, UK. 2001

Monument to the great Russian Tsar, who came to England in 1698, where he studied the science of shipbuilding.

Monument "Children - Victims of Adults' Vices"

Monument “Children - victims of adult vices”, Moscow, Russia 2001.

The monument “Children – Victims of the Vices of Adults” is an allegorical sculptural composition symbolizing the fight against evil and human vices. Shemyakin himself says that he conceived his work as a symbol of the struggle for the salvation of present and future generations.

The monument is installed in the park on Bolotnaya Square. The composition represents figures standing in a semicircle, personifying the vices: Drug addiction, Prostitution, Theft, Alcoholism, Ignorance, Pseudo-learning, Equality, Sadism, For the unconscious, Exploitation of child labor, Propaganda of violence, Poverty, War, and in front of them in the center are sculptures of a boy and a girl blindfolded.

Monument "Tsar's Walk" in Strelna

Monument "Tsar's Walk" in the park of the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna (St. Petersburg), Russia. 2003

The composition, installed on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, represents Peter the Great and his wife Catherine the Great on a walk, accompanied by a dwarf and two greyhounds. According to Mikhail Shemyakin, this is the first sculptural image of Catherine, who had not previously been represented in bronze.

Tombstone of A.A. Sobchak

Tombstone of A.A. Sobchak, St. Petersburg, 2003.

The tombstone is designed as a pulpit, behind which we see a professor in a university doctoral robe. The work was done at the request of the widow and, of course, out of gratitude - after all, it was on the initiative of Anatoly Alexandrovich that my monuments to the “Victims of Political Repression” and “Prime Builders of St. Petersburg” appeared in the city - Mikhail Shemyakin.

Monument to Vladimir Vysotsky in Samara

Monument to Vladimir Vysotsky, Samara, Russia. 2008

The monument to Vysotsky is a multi-figure bronze composition. The figures in the composition symbolically represent the key themes of Vladimir Semenovich’s life: love for a Woman, opposition to the irrational destructive principle, the thirst for freedom. The figure of a warden with a bunch of keys against the background of prison bars seems especially relevant in our time. The height of the monument is 5 meters, the area of ​​the composition is 25 square meters. meters.

Monument to the “Victims of Terror” in Vladikavkaz

Monument to the “Victims of Terror”, Vladikavkaz, Russia 2010.

Mikhail Shemyakin presented this monument to the Republic of North Ossetia (Russia).

“Monument to the Victims of Terror” is dedicated to the Beslan tragedy (terrorists seized a school building with students and kept them in inhumane conditions for several days. 186 children died, over 800 were injured)

In the center of the sculptural composition are children frozen in silent protest, trying to stop the army of advancing monsters. And behind the kids’ backs is the wheel of fate and a scroll depicting all those who died as a result of terrorist attacks.

In which the motifs of the famous sphinxes on the University Embankment are rethought. Located opposite the notorious Kresty prison on Voskresenskaya Embankment. The author of the project is Mikhail Shemyakin.

The monument in the form of two bronze sphinxes on granite pedestals was opened on April 28, 1995. These unusual sphinxes face the residential buildings on the embankment with their profiles like young female faces, and the Neva and the Kresty prison on the opposite bank are pitted, exposed skulls. Between the sphinxes on the parapet of the embankment there is a stylized window of a prison cell with bars.

The height of the sphinxes is 1.40 m, the height of the plinth is 0.17 m, the height of the pedestals is 1.60. [ ]

Along the perimeters of the granite pedestals there are copper plates on which are engraved lines from the works of V. Shalamov, N. Gumilyov, O. Mandelstam, A. Akhmatova, N. Zabolotsky, D. Andreev, D. Likhachev, I. Brodsky, Yu. Galanskova, A. Solzhenitsyn, V. Vysotsky, V. Bukovsky:

• All his comrades fell asleep, / only he alone is not sleeping: / he is all busy casting a bullet, / that will separate me from the earth... / Nikolai Gumilyov, 1917;
• ... St. Petersburg! I still have addresses / where I will find the voices of the dead... / Osip Mandelstam, 1930
• ... I would like to call everyone by name, / But the lists were taken away and there is nowhere to find out ... / And if they shut my exhausted mouth, / To which a hundred million people are shouting ... / Because even in the blessed death I am afraid / To forget the rumble of the black marus, / To forget how hateful she clapped door / And the old woman howled like a wounded animal. / And let the melted snow flow from the motionless and bronze eyelids / Like tears, / And let the prison dove hum in the distance / And let the ships quietly sail along the Neva... / Anna Akhmatova, 1935-1940;
• ... So they walked in their pea jackets - / two unfortunate Russian old men, / remembering their native huts / and yearning for them from afar... /... The guards will no longer catch up with them, / the camp convoy will not overtake, / only the constellations of Magadan / will sparkle, becoming above your head... / Nikolai Zabolotsky, 1947-1948;
• … No! We are not architects of palaces / who create under the sun and wind / domes and crowns, / erecting in the blue eye - / in the depths of a Russian prison / I work on the mysterious meter / until the dawn border / in my dim window... / Daniil Andreev, 1956;
• I can repeat what I said before: / there is no fear in truth. / Truth and fear are not compatible. / Dmitry Likhachev, 1987;
• January passed outside the prison windows / and I heard the singing of prisoners, sounding in the brick host of cells: / “One of our brothers is free.” / You also hear the singing of the prisoners / and the tramp of the silent guards, / you yourself are singing, singing silently: / “Goodbye, January” / Turning your face to the window, / you are still taking sips of warm air, / and I am again wandering thoughtfully / from the interrogation for interrogation along the corridor / To that distant country where there is no longer / neither January, nor February, nor March. / Joseph Brodsky, 1961;
• ...You may win this fight, but you / will still lose this war. The war / for democracy and Russia, a war / which has already begun and in which / justice will inevitably win... / Yuri Galanskov, 1966;
• … That’s why everyone who dug deeper / experienced it more fully - those in the grave will no longer / tell. / No one / will ever tell the main thing about these camps... / Alexander Solzhenitsyn;
• Everything is taken into the pipes, the taps are turned off, / at night they just whine and whine, / what is needed... we need to pour salt into the wounds, / to remember better - let them hurt! / Vladimir Vysotsky;
• Unhappy is the country where simple honesty / is perceived at best as / heroism, at worst as a mental / disorder, for in such a country the land / will not produce bread. Woe to that people in whom the sense of dignity has dried up, for their children will be born deformed. And if / there is not at least one in that country / to take upon himself the common sin, / the wind will never return / to normal. Vladimir Bukovsky, 1995;
• The smell of larch was faint but clear, and no force in the world could drown out this smell, put out this green light and color. A faint persistent smell - it was the voice of the dead. On behalf of these dead people, the larch dared to breathe, speak and live. Varlam Shalamov, “Kolyma Tales”.

The monument also shows a facsimile of the signature

The sphinxes on the University Embankment have long become one of the main symbols of St. Petersburg, along with the Peter and Paul Fortress and St. Isaac's Cathedral, and the Egyptian Hall in the Hermitage is a treasured secret room for many children and adults.

The fashion for Egyptian themes, which arose in Europe after Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt at the beginning of the 19th century, was also reflected in St. Petersburg monuments. Many Egyptian details in the appearance of the city - decorative elements of classical houses, obelisks, steles and, of course, sphinxes - are so familiar to the eye that they are perceived as a natural part of the environment. And yet, having seen so much in their lifetime, they keep many secrets. The Egyptian mysticism of St. Petersburg is further enhanced by the fact that the city is located almost on the meridian of the Great Pyramid. Our detailed guide has collected the brightest, most ancient and most mysterious “Egyptian” places in St. Petersburg.

Sphinxes on Universitetskaya embankment

Among the varied monumental and decorative sculpture of St. Petersburg there are various sphinxes; Of these, two granite sculptures from ancient Thebes are of greatest artistic and historical value. They were discovered in the 20s of the 19th century by French archaeologists and since 1834 they have been decorating the pier on the Neva in front of the Academy of Arts. Almost 35 centuries ago, they guarded the tomb of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, king of Upper and Lower Egypt. Wise as people, strong as lions, they are called upon to patronize and protect the pharaoh. Both statues are covered with hieroglyphs - on the cartouches and on the chest of the sphinxes, on the side faces of the granite bases. Each of the sphinxes has two inscriptions, which are variants of the titles of Amenhotep III.

Sphinxes of Mikhail Shemyakin (monument to victims of political repression)

The youngest sphinxes of St. Petersburg are located on the Robespierre embankment. They were installed in 1995 as a monument to the victims of political terror and repression. The location was not chosen by chance: opposite, on the other bank of the Neva, is the famous Kresty prison, where convicts languished. The appearance of the sphinxes is somewhat frightening: one half of the face is a traditional female face, which is facing the houses on the embankment, and the other half, looking at the prison, is covered with wounds to the bare bones of the skull. On the pedestals of the monuments there are traces of bullets and lines by Brodsky and Akhmatova, Gumilyov, Solzhenitsyn and other authors of the 20th century who came into contact with the topic of political repression. Some argue that sphinxes supposedly help prisoners who were unjustly imprisoned to return home.

Egyptian Bridge

The Egyptian Bridge on the Fontanka, through which Lermontovsky Prospekt passes, was built in 1826. At one time it was considered the most beautiful in St. Petersburg. True, the bridge that exists today bears little resemblance to the old Egyptian one - it is single-span, suspended on chains from a gate decorated in the Egyptian style and covered with imitations of hieroglyphs. The entrance to the bridge on both sides was guarded by four cast-iron sphinxes made by the sculptor P. P. Sokolov.
In 1905, the Egyptian Bridge collapsed as a cavalry detachment crossed it head to head - as in the most classic example of resonance in a school physics textbook. It was restored in a modified form only half a century later, in 1955. However, the stylized appearance of the new sphinxes with a high gilded crest of a headdress and a flexible strong body began to resemble Greek sculptures rather than Egyptian art.

The Stroganov Palace is a wonderful work of the outstanding architect of the mid-18th century F.B. Rastrelli and one of the best architectural monuments of the heyday of the Russian Baroque. At the doors of the former main entrance (now from the side of the courtyard), on low pedestals lie two sphinxes made of gray granite, more than a meter in size. They were transported here in 1908 from the pier at the dacha of Count A.S. Stroganov and were, in fact, the first sphinxes to appear on the embankments of St. Petersburg.

Sphinxes on Sverdlovskaya embankment

The front terrace-pier with sphinxes on the Sverdlovskaya embankment was built in the 1780s according to the design of D. Quarneghi and was an excellent addition to the architectural ensemble of the estate of Chancellor A. Bezborodko. The terrace was decorated with four sculptures of sphinxes and vases, the author of which is unknown. A grotto was built between them, in which a spring with healing water flowed. The original sphinxes disappeared without a trace in the 19th century, and during the Great Patriotic War the pier itself was destroyed. Its restoration took place in 1959–1960 and included, among other things, the restoration of lost sculptures. New figures of sphinxes are carved from gray granite according to samples located in front of the Stroganov Palace on Nevsky Prospekt. However, the statues seem to have lost their magical power, and there is no longer a healing spring in the grotto.

Completely original sphinxes are located in the courtyard of the St. Petersburg Mining University. The middle of the courtyard is occupied by a small ancient garden with lawns, densely overgrown bushes and trees, and in the depths of the central alley there are two sphinxes and a stone bowl with flowers between them. The sculptures are small, installed without pedestals, but thanks to their black coloring they stand out sharply against the background of greenery. These are perhaps the most feminine of all St. Petersburg specimens: expressive faces are framed by thickly curly hair gathered at the back of the head, rather than traditional headdresses. The sphinxes changed their location more than once, but found their permanent refuge in the park of the institute in the summer of 1966. They say that they help students pass exams - the main thing is to ask them about it the day before.

21st line V.O., 2

The smallest sphinx of St. Petersburg has probably not been seen by the vast majority of citizens. Since 1832, he has lived at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and Sadovaya Street, on the main building of the Russian National Library. Sculptor Vasily Demut-Malinovsky placed it on the helmet of the goddess of wisdom Minerva, crowning the attic of the main facade of the building. He is very difficult to notice from the ground, but he, of course, like the “elders,” can fulfill any innermost desire.

Egyptian house

In 1911–1913, according to the design of the architect Songailov, the Nezhinskaya apartment building, better known today as the Egyptian House, was built on Zakharyevskaya Street. The facade of the building is somewhat reminiscent of the main entrance to the temple of the goddess Hathor in Dendera, despite the obvious overload of decorative elements. The capitals of the columns are decorated with the faces of the heavenly goddess of love, at the doors of the entrances there are colossal royal pilasters depicting pharaohs in short loincloths, in the inner courtyard-well there are friezes made of uraei and two monumental figures of the king and queen on the wall. And besides, on the facade you can find scarabs, sun disks, flying birds, and papyri - in general, everything that reminds you of the “banks of the sacred Nile”.

st. Zakharyevskaya, 23

For the first time, interest in Egypt acquired architectural forms in Tsarskoe Selo, where in 1770, by order of Catherine II, the Pyramid pavilion appeared. It became a park structure quite characteristic of its era. The Empress showed a sense of humor and ordered it to be built next to the burial place of her dogs - and in Ancient Egypt, as you know, the pyramids were the tombs of the pharaohs. In 1773, four columns carved from marble were installed at the corners of the pyramid. Later, here, in the wall niches, a collection of Egyptian sarcophagi and other antiquities was placed, which were later transferred to the Hermitage collection.

Pushkin, st. Sadovaya, 7

Egyptian Gate in Pushkin

The Egyptian, also known as Kuzminsky (due to the proximity of Kuzminskaya Street), gates were built in the 1827–1830s according to the design of the architect A. Menelas. They formed the frame of the triumphal entry into Tsarskoe Selo. Two stone gate guards with relief images of various scenes from the mythology and life of the ancient Egyptians reproduce the shape of Egyptian temple pylons. During the Great Patriotic War, the gates suffered heavy damage. Today they have been restored, the damaged parts of the cast-iron cladding have been re-cast, which has given the building back its monumental, but at the same time very harmonious appearance.

Pushkin

Hall of Ancient Egypt in the Hermitage

In the large hall on the ground floor of the Winter Palace, objects of culture and art of Ancient Egypt from the fourth millennium BC to the first centuries of our time are exhibited: sarcophagi, papyri, sculptures, jewelry, small sculptures, there is even a mummy of a priest, so beloved by the public. The beginning of the Egyptian collection of the Hermitage, along with the collection of the Italian Castiglione acquired by Russia, was the statue of Sekhmet, which had stood in the Academy of Arts for several years before. The famous orientalist of the 19th century O. I. Senkovsky, who himself visited Egypt, was the first to draw attention to the significance of the unique collection of the museum and predicted that the study of this collection “will, without a doubt, glorify more than one Russian name.” Indeed, the Egyptian treasures of the Hermitage inspired the best Russian orientalists years later.

June 7 marks the 25th anniversary of the opening of the most scandalous monument to Peter I, created by Mikhail Shemyakin in 1991, in the Peter and Paul Fortress. This is a gift from a famous artist to his hometown and... Peter, whose birthday is celebrated on June 9. How was this controversial monument, as well as other controversial works of the master, created?

"Peter the Spider"

Bronze Peter I, sitting on the throne in Peter and Paul Fortress, is one of the most controversial and interesting images of the reformer tsar. The idea of ​​creating a monument, like many things in Shemyakin’s life, came by chance. His workshop had long kept a copy of the Tsar’s lifetime wax mask, made back in 1719 by Rastrelli. Today it is believed that it quite accurately shows the true face of Peter. One day Vladimir Vysotsky saw her and suggested that the artist sculpt the emperor: “You draw Peter a lot, but why have you never made a sculpture?”

In 1980, Vysotsky died and Shemyakin, in memory of his friend, began work in the USA.

The figure of Peter surprises with its violation of natural proportions. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Tara-Amingu

“I began to create the first sketches in clay. Immediately in life-size,” Shemyakin recalled. “We took the wrapped models into the park and put them on a chair. Here it turned out that from a distance of 5 meters Peter gave the impression of a very short man, although he was two meters tall. And I began to enlarge the torso. Until he came to the proportions of a Russian icon. On them, after all, the apostles have a tiny head and a long body...”

Shemyakin worked on the sculpture for 8 years. The inscription on the side plane of the pedestal reads: “Founder of the Great City of Russia to Emperor Peter the Great from the Italian sculptor Carlo Rastrelli and from the Russian artist Mikhail Shemyakin. 1991 Cast in America." By the way, to read these words you have to bow your head, so the sculptor once again forces us to be respectful to the emperor.

The figure surprises with its violation of natural proportions: the face resembles the inhabitants of the Kunstkamera, the head is bald and cartoonishly small, the body is too large, the torso, legs and arms are very elongated. The creepy fingers especially stand out. They are so long and thin that wits called the monument “Spider Peter”.

“My work was created not for contemplation and admiration, but for reflection on the tragic fate of Russia over the last three centuries,” says the sculptor. “Perhaps this understanding does not come immediately.”

When the monument was first created, many experts, including famous architects, advocated its installation in the Summer Garden. However, the first mayor of the city, Anatoly Sobchak, intervened and the “shocking” sculpture was unveiled near the Commandant’s House of the Peter and Paul Fortress. This happened in June 1991, on the eve of the return to Leningrad of the historical name of St. Petersburg, which further added fuel to the fire. A wave of criticism immediately fell on Shemyakin’s creation.

There were so many attacks that in the first days they even had to post guards near the sculpture to avoid vandalism. But over time, people got used to the new image of the autocrat sitting on the throne and it became a landmark of St. Petersburg. Moreover, he is a wish-granter. The legend is firmly established that if you rub Peter’s long fingers, everything you wish for will come true. With your right hand, money will flow; with your left hand, creative inspiration will descend. Well, if you sit on your knees, everything will be fine in your personal life. And, judging by how the long fingers literally shine and the knees are almost worn out, dreams come true...

Skeleton Sphinxes

This monument to the “Victims of Political Repression”, in which the motifs of the famous St. Petersburg sphinxes are reinterpreted, was erected in 1995.

“The place opposite the famous Kresty prison was not chosen by chance,” says Shemyakin. “During the years of Stalin’s repressions, prisoners and the faces of sphinxes languished there - the personification of the cruel regime. On the side of the residential buildings they have young female profiles, and on the side of the “Crosses” they have corroded, exposed skulls. Between them is a stylized prison window with bars. This is how the life of the country is reflected - one half lived in ignorance, the others died, no one knows why.”

Along the perimeters of the granite pedestals there are copper plates on which are engraved lines from the works of Shalamov, Gumilyov, Mandelstam, Akhmatova, Zabolotsky, Andreev, Likhachev, Brodsky, Bukovsky, Solzhenitsyn, Vysotsky. It seems to show how close life and death, freedom and imprisonment, happiness and tragedy were at that terrible time. The bodies of sphinxes are thin and bones protrude through the skin, and in the high position of the head one can read terrible anxiety.

In the 70s, for behavior that was inappropriate, from the point of view of the regime, he was placed in a mental hospital with a diagnosis of “sluggish schizophrenia.” Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Probably, while creating these sculptures, the artist also remembered his own life. In the 70s, for behavior that was inappropriate, from the point of view of the regime, he was placed in a mental hospital with a diagnosis of “sluggish schizophrenia.” And in 1971, they kicked me out of the country within a few hours, without even allowing me to say goodbye to my parents. For what? The bosses did not like the new movement “metaphysical synthetism” invented by the rebel. True, subsequent life showed that the authorities, without suspecting it themselves, did Shemyakin a huge favor. He received recognition abroad and became a citizen of the world. Today, kings and heads of state are friends with him. And now he comes to Russia whenever and for as long as he wants. He was also given an apartment on Fontanka, on behalf of Vladimir Putin. As the artist himself said, when the official to whom the president gave the order asked how long it would take to provide Shemyakin with housing, the head of state replied: “We kicked him out in ’71, so the turn has come...”

Two destinies

A special page in Shemyakin’s life is his friendship with Vysotsky, whom they met thanks to Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1974.

“Our friendship was born really suddenly, but it was clear that this would be forever,” Shemyakin recalled. - It felt like we had known each other for a long time, but we had only been apart for a very long time. And now we need to speak out, tell each other something important and necessary for both of us.”

Vladimir Vysotsky in the film "Vertical". Photo: Still from the film/ “Vertical”

Vysotsky dedicated his songs to Shemyakin, who, in turn, drew illustrations for the works of Vladimir Semyonovich. The famous “On Bolshoy Karetny” is dedicated to their joint sprees. In total, Shemyakin created 42 illustrations “on the theme of Vysotsky” - one for each year of the legendary actor’s life. The monument to the poet erected in Samara also became unusual. It opened on January 25, 2008, on the bard’s 70th birthday. In the center of the composition is the figure of Vysotsky in the role of Hamlet and with a guitar in his hands. On the right is a man in a raincoat, personifying the “black man” and the destructive forces that accompanied the artist on his life’s path. On the left, against the background of the bars, is a guard with a bunch of keys. Closer to the center is a woman with the face of Marina Vladi, symbolizing the Beloved and the Muse. The monument was erected near the Samara Sports Palace, where in 1967 Vysotsky gave the first concerts in his life to an audience of six thousand.

Children and evil

This is the most scandalous monument to Shemyakin (installed in 2001 on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow).

“The composition was conceived and carried out by me as a symbol and call to the struggle for the salvation of today’s and future generations... I, as an artist, with this work urge you to look around, hear and see what is happening. And before it’s too late, sensible and honest people need to think about it.”

There are 13 figures of vices in total, and they are deliberately tall, so that even adults feel their insignificance. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

There are 13 figures of vices in total, and they are deliberately tall, so that even adults feel their insignificance. Drug addiction, for example, is depicted as a bald man with a sly, unpleasant face. Behind his back he has broken wings, on which it is impossible to fly. There is a syringe in my hand. The obsequious smile seems to say, you just need to accept this “gift” and everything will be fine... Prostitution opens its arms in the form of a half-woman, half-frog. She has a beautiful body and elegant clothes, but there is no expression in her bulging eyes, and her grin is repulsive. Sadism is shown by a rhinoceros in a butcher's "outfit" with an evil face. You can feel that this is someone who likes to torture the weak because he is stronger. The Pillory is also prepared - this is for those who turn a blind eye to terrible events only because they are a thing of the past. The war is also depicted with wings, but in armor and a gas mask. She hands the guys a toy - Mickey Mouse. But the mouse is shackled in a bomb...

The monument is among the top 10 most controversial monuments in the capital. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Glavkom_NN

Shemyakin sculpted the monsters so vitally, they are so disgusting in their inclinations that the monument, in addition to supporters, also found many opponents. It is among the top 10 most controversial monuments in the capital. And after the attack by vandals, the authorities installed a fence and security, now the vices can only be seen from 9 am to 9 pm. If only this were the case in life...

Photo: Monument to the victims of political repression