Mikhail Schwartzmann. Retrospective.

Mikhail Schwartzmann (1926-97) was born in Moscow but after his father-s imprisonment the family frequently moved from place to place. In 1944 Schwartzmann was called up into the Army and five years later he entered the metal and then monumental departments of the Higher School of Art and Industry (former Stroganov School) in Moscow. After graduation from the art school Schwartzmann worked as industrial, book graphic and poster designer and continued to paint though never joining the Union of Artists and rarely exhibiting his works. The artist called his canvases ?the hierats¦. ?The hieratic concept¦ was the central principle of his work. In life man creates an icon of himself and after death he leaves an iconic trace of himself entombed. The so-called ?countenances¦ were the first step of his transition to ?emblematic-architectonic hierature¦. The works of this period defined his further artistic quest. In 1994 the artist held his first one-man show in the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. The retrospective exhibition of Mikhail Schwartzmann in the Marble Palace of the Russian Museum comprises 60 canvases, 30 graphic works of the artist and documental photographs.