Konstantin ivanov

K. Ivanov (1890-1915) is the Chuvash national poet. People in Chuvashia are proud of him and on May 15 widely celebrate the anniversary of his birthday. The Chuvash Republic treats the poet as the true national hero.

His poetry is consonant to people's aspiration. It is closely connected with their thoughts and dreams about freedom. His poetry called to light. K. Ivanov considered his literary work as his patriotic duty to restore the Chuvashes to new life.

He was born in the village of Slakbash in Bashkiria. His grandfather and father were literate people, so they tried to give education to all their children. At 8 Kostya was sent to the village primary school and 3 years later his aunt, a teacher, took him to her school. Kostya prepared for his entrance exams to the Simbirsk Chuvash Teachers' school and soon passed them successfully.

He read a lot of books of Russian writers, was keen on carving, painting and photography. All his further life was connected with the Simbirsk Chuvash Teachers' school. But in 1907 he had to interrupt his studies at school and return to his native village. Then he helped I. Yakovlev translate books into Chuvash and wrote some verses, e.g. Old Forest Thought, Autumn, The Hungry, some ballades, e.g. Two daughters, A Widow. He wrote the poem Narspi, in which he created a number of national characters such as Narspi and Setner.

We admire their tragic love, their sincere feelings to each other. The author sympathized with them; he penetrates deeply into heroes' souls and reveals their best qualities. He is a true humanist and realist, we believe him. In 1908 Ivanov published his first poems. At 19 he passed his exams and became a teacher of folk school.

In 1910 he began to work as a teacher of calligraphy and drawing in Simbirsk Two-Year Women College. At that time he collected popular folk songs, painted a lot and prepared for the entrance exams to the Academy of Arts. But his dreams didn't come true. He died on March 13, 1915, at the age of 25 from tuberculosis.

There is no person in Chuvashia, who doesn't know the greatest poem by Konstantin Ivanov, entitled Narspi.

Narspi is a name of the main character of the poem. She is very kind, smart, and beautiful; everybody in her village loves her.

Narspi was a daughter of a rich Chuvash peasant Mikheder. The father loved her, took care about her while she was a little girl. But when she grew up he "sold" her to another rich man, to Takhtaman.

But Narspi, whose heart belonged to a courageous, but poor young man Setner, didn't obey her hard fate; her soul arose against the terrible world, where the evil, money and wealth ruled. However in the unequal fight the girl and her beloved man died.

The tragic end of the strong and pure love of Narspi and Setner in the unequal fight with the dark forces points and stresses the deep humanistic idea of the author, and sounds like an appeal against dark and appeal for light.

The art museum, chuvash artists

The Museum was founded in 1939 and till 1985 was called the Chuvash State Art Gallery. It is a department of the Chuvash National Museum. The Chuvash State Art Museum was organized on the basis of the Chuvash Museum fund and various gifts.

The exhibits represent Russian art of 17^th -early 20^th centuries.

The funds of the museum contain paintings, sculptures, drawings, and works of folk art, of modern and past time, decorative art.

The Chuvash State Art Museum is housed in 3 buildings. The main building in Kalinin Street opened in 1985. There you can see a constant exposition of Chuvash fine art and works of folk art and pictures by Russian, Chuvash and foreign artists. The museum fund has about 500 paintings. Among them there are some by famous Chuvash artists A. A. Kokel, N. V. Ovchinnikov, Petrov (Praski Vitti), etc.

The museum collection contains Chuvash national costumes, patterns of embroidery.

The 2^nd building is in the former mansion of the merchant F. P. Yefremov (K. Ivanov Street). There are 2 departments there: Russian art and foreign art. The collection of Russian art has icons, books, paintings, sculptures and drawings of the 16-20^th centuries and Eastern and European porcelain. You can find pictures by Rokotov, Borovikovsky, Tropinin and others.

Nikolai Vasilievich Ovchinnikov is the People's painter of the Chuvash Republic, Honoured Art Worker of the Chuvash Republic. He was born in 1918 in the village of Mizhuli of Mariinsky Posad district of Chuvashia. N. Ovchinnikov started his education in the Engraving College in Alatyr. After finishing the third year he entered preparatory classes of the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, and then he entered the Academy.

He took part in the Finnish war and in the Great Patriotic war. After the war in 1945 he continued his art education at the Institute named after Repin, graduated from it in 1951 and entered post-graduate course of the Academy of Arts of the Soviet Union. He finished the course in 1954 and received the degree of Candidate of Art.

N. Ovchinnikov became a member of the Artists' Union of Russia in 1952. He was a teacher at the Art Department of the State Teacher's Training Institute.

The painter took part in many exhibitions in Moscow, Warsaw, Bucharest, Leningrad, and Volgograd.

His personal exhibitions were organized in Cheboksary.

Alexei Afanasievich Kokel is the first Chuvash painter who received professional education. He was born in 1880 in the village of Tarkhani of the Batyrevo district of the republic in the poor family of peasants. At the age of seven the boy went to the local school. There in his free time he copied pictures from the books in the school library. He was ten when he fell ill with bone tuberculosis. Due to his disease he couldn't work hard and painted all the time. He depicted everything: domestic animals and birds, peasants and his village. Then he started to picture icons for the local churches and people.

In 1899 there was a heavy drought in the Volga region and his health condition became acute. Medical students who came to the region helped him and then the boy was sent to Petersburg.

After a long treatment he learned at the Art School at the Academy of Arts and at the same time attended the studio of A. Makovsy. Then he studied in the Academy of Arts. He was granted a trip to Italy for his picture In the tea-room.

When he returned from abroad in 1916 he was invited to the Kharkov Art College and the painter spent the rest of his life in that city,

His pictures were exhibited in Petersburg, Munich and Venice, Kharkov, Cheboksary and other cities.

A.A. Kokel died in Kharkov in 1956.

Moisei Spiridonovich Spiridonov is the People's painter of the Chuvash Republic, Honoured Art Worker of the Chuvash Republic. He was born in 1890 in the village of Yanshihovo-Norvashi of the Yantikovo district of the republic. He studied at the village two-year school and after that entered the Kazan Art School,

In the period of 1912 to 1917 he studied at the Higher Art College attached to the Academy of Arts in Petrograd. Then he started teaching at the Pedagogical College at the station of Shikhrany. Spiridonov was one of the organizers of Artists' Union in Chuvashia. He became a member of the Artists' Union in the Russian Federation in 1933.

The painter took part in many exhibitions in Moscow and Kazan. His personal exhibitions were organized in Cheboksary.