Irkutsk in life and creativity

 

Irkutsk. 1988

 

Alexander’s biography is quite plain. He was born in Komsomolsk-on-Amur and brought up by his mother. He was good at school. His artistic talents appeared in the early childhood: at the age of five he was drawing and was always interested in it. Moreover, he learned pretty well himself how to play the harmonic. He was lucky as when he entered Art School he was taught by an exiled artist from Paleh. Probably, his teacher had a higher art education but was weak at teaching methodology at children’s art school (for instance, he placed a naked subject in front of the senior students). But, at the same time he could taught the children to understand and love art.

At the age of 14, he arrives in Irkutsk with his pillow, blanket, mattress and absolute assurance to enter Art School. Despite a great competition, he managed to enter from the first attempt.  The place of studies’ choice was not accidental, as Irkutsk Art School was considered to be the best in Siberia and the Far East.

 

Seeingoff. 1965. Children’s Art School. Komsomolsk-on-Amur (entrance work)

 

The period of his education is from 1966 to 1970. It was one of the brightest educational periods at the history of Art School. Teaching staff was not oriented on the diligent average student but a creative personality who was logically targeted at their future profession. Alexander respected his teachers. However, he singled out the following ones, such as G. E. Novikova, G. A. Kurochkina, G. V. Antsiferova, G. G. Levy.

He studied at a decorative-layout department. At his graduation, Alexander provided a bark picture devoted to the everyday life of the people from the North. It was his topic but not material. However, thanks to Georgy Grigorievitch Levy, Sheltunov decided to work with graphic arts by the end of his Art School graduation. That was natural as graphic arts were a leading art not only in Irkutsk but in Russia in the 70–80s. A constellation of very interesting graphic artists worked in Irkutsk at that time. There was A. Shipitsin, U. Kruglov, A. Anosov, S. Garaschuk, G. Kurochkina, N. Domashenko, V. Adov, A. Muravyov and many others.

 

Irkutsk Art School. 1969. The fourth course

 

After the graduation of Art School Alexander and his young wife went to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, his native land where he worked at Art Fund and dealt with the advertisement. But he was not carried away with layout work. He illustrated children’s books, painted a lot, worked with watercolor and oil. Despite his promising life prospects in Komsomolsk, Alexander was dreaming to come back to Irkutsk. He was attracted by a diverse cultural life of the city, active art environment. As a result, the Sheltunovs came back to Irkutsk in 1975.

The spirit of the city, communication with the students of the same year and his friends were very pleasant and energetic. Indefatigable energy and ambition made him work hard. Sheltunov’s creative method was formed just precisely in Irkutsk, which is traditional in the finest and the most serious sense of the word: hard preparatory work at the endless open air in the city, environs, the Baikal, and then all collected material was deeply thought and processed at the studio.

 

Irkutsk Art School. 1970. The fourth course

 

As it was mentioned above, in 1976, he became a Winner of the Oblast Conference “Youth. Creativity. Modernity.”And it played a major role in further Alexander’s creative destiny. He got an Artist’s Union letter of referral to the creative summer house “Staraya Ladoga”. He took part at the conference twice. This conference is held two times a year. He became I. Utkin’s award laureate in 1984.

Diplomas, letters of commendation, appreciations… There were a lot of them. But he was especially proud of a gold medal which he won at “The Image of the Atlantic” the 1st International Salon in Nantes, France in “A Foreign Artist” nomination.

After “Staraya Ladoga”, trips to Olkhon, Belsk, BAM, Bulgaria, Italy, Poland, France, he certainly exposed his works at city’s small exhibit rooms, in Academgorodok, Literary Men House, Art House and Painter’s House. These were favorite exposition places of young artists as it was practically impossible for them to get into Art Museum halls. However, the artist needs the audience and it is easier to evaluate the works when you see them at the exhibit room.

Sheltunov became the Artists’ Union of the USSR member in 1979. He was given famous masters’ recommendations, such as G. E. Novikova, A. S. Shipitsin, A. M. Muravyov, U. I. Burykin, Head of the Eastern Siberian Publishing House. Everybody mentioned that he was young, energetic, worked hard and was in a constant search of his image harmony his painting style.

One cannot help mentioning one more Alexander’s side. He had been the Head of "Baikalsky Aquamarine" child visual arts studio at the Pioneers’ House of Kuybyshevsky district in Irkutsk for several years. His work with studio students deserves special attention as he was busy himself with them and put their works into shape. He deeply valued spiritual features, sincerity, artistic flair and imagination of his followers. There were several students’ exhibitions in Russia and abroad as well thanks to his persistence and spiritual generosity. Meanwhile, Alexander always mentioned that his work with children enriched him at a great extent and a lot of ideas sprang into his mind after looking through children works.

By the 1980s, Sheltunov’s individual creative direction was defined. He devoted himself entirely to painting in watercolors skillfully implementing all its technical possibilities. It can be said that he was the only artist in Irkutsk who achieved great results in this technique which has a bent for miniature, lyricism, vagueness, refined and sophisticated language. In that period, he created sophisticated and voluminous works and their style was becoming much steadier and perfect.

It seemed that artist had a positive flow of things. But, at times he had a feeling that life was not interesting and boring without a constant renovation and a trial to implement something completely new.

Frequently masters either work all their lives in one technique and in one kind of visual arts or try to work in many different kinds and genres. But, as for Alexander, his creativity seemed to have been split into two not equal parts according to the time: he was a graphic artist from the mid 70’s up to 2000 and first of all, he was a watercolorist. From the early 2000’s, he was basically painting in oils only. His basic genres are landscape and still life. It would seem a long-term work with watercolor was to create the fixation on a much organic “Whatman paper” dimension for this method. However, the dominating format of his that time paintings was just monumental canvases: 150 × 300, 130 × 200… He had a pastose style of painting and a wide dab.

His latest works devoted to 350th Irkutsk anniversary are of a special interest. Sheltunov appeared as a completely mature master of painting in oils. We can see the works perfectly arranged from the point of colorful spots’ plastic art which adequately reproduce the artist’s thoughts and feelings. The master created a magic flashing and shining world of the city’s wooden architecture, the world which has transformed into the legend to a considerable degree. The legend is a favorite one especially by older generation citizens of Irkutsk. The legend which is all about outgoing dramatic and enjoyable, with plenty of confidence and hopes, full of creative activity time. It took more than half a century to figure out how to save an old, mostly wooden downtown. Meanwhile, this old city was gradually disappearing under the pressure of industrial architectural technologies. There has been a charming myth, a legend about a disappearing town and Alexander Sheltunov was probably one of the most outstanding and talented creator of this myth. His series of works devoted to the 350th Irkutsk anniversary is a royal gift to our city indeed.

The text writer: Iraida Fedchina