"Anna Karenina" through the eyes of an unknown Russian - the famous Frenchman

On September 4, the opening of the exhibition "Alexander Alexeev". Anna Karenina. Aquatints »

will take place at the  Hermitage-Kazan center.

For the first time, an exhibition of book graphics by Alexander Alexeev, the famous French illustrator and animator, pioneer of artistic animation, graphic artist and film director, will open at the center of the Hermitage-Kazan. His innovative approach to graphics and animation was admired by his contemporaries - A.N. Benoit, Salvador Dali and Orson Welles.

Alexander Alekseev was born in 1901 in Kazan. But he spent most of his life in Paris. Known to the whole world engraver, was a little familiar to the Russian audience. The artist emigrated during the Civil War in Russia, lived in America and France. He worked hard on  design of works by Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Pasternak, but a special place in the work of the master is occupied by illustrations for the novel "Anna Karenina." The largest and most famous series of aquatint (a type of etchings) was created by him between 1951 and 1957. During the life of the artist, the publication of these illustrations did not take place. Thanks to the collector from Germany Irina Styozh, today we can see test prints of illustrations for the novel by Leo Tolstoy, which are presented in the halls of the Hermitage-Kazan.

His etchings are not at all like a typical illustration of a work of art. Two artists, two artists joined the worksheets: one created images in literary language, and the other the same characters, images, moods, creates illustrative and pictorial language. "He read the text of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy seven or eight times, he knew it by heart, he knew such corners, details that the normal reader does not know. So reading his engravings, watching and reading his interpretation is magic, "notes the historian of literature Georges Niva.

Alexandr Alekseev   is considered a progenitor of computer graphics: he invented the famous "needle screen", with which he created a unique graphics, and then "animated" it by making animated films. "Needle Screen" allows you to achieve fickleness, illusory images and many other graphic and black and white effects, previously unknown in the animation. Masterpieces of animated films include Alexeyev's films: "The Night on Bald Mountain" (1933), "The Nose" (1963), "Pictures at an Exhibition" (1972), "Three Themes" (1980).

On the illustrations by Alekseev, the theatricality of the artisans, the complex geometry of the late Cubism, and the phantom imagery of the Surrealists are recognized. But most of all - the language of avant-garde photography and cinema: sharp framing, overlaying, translucence, "flowing" forms. The sequence of sheets is constructed as a change of plans; The compositions are connected by repetitive motives, turning them into a kind of a single film. Alexandr Alekseev was distinguished by an innovative approach to reading a literary work. In those days, when they were created, it was considered a bold experiment. But even now they look fresh and modern.