Marina Evgenevna, Summer Games, 1960

Children, Playing, Green, Blue, Russian art, 1970, Marina Evgenevna USPENSKAYA (Moscow, 1925 – 2007) Marina Evgenevna Uspenskaya was Born in Moscow. She graduated from the 1905 Art College, where she studied theatre and decorative arts under professor V.A. Shestakov. In 1947 she entered the graphics department of the Surikov Institute in Moscow, where she studied under professor D.E. Dekhtyaryev in the book illustration studio. Soon after graduation she found her passion and craft: Illustrations for children's’ books. Throughout her career, she made illustrations for some 200 children's’ books in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Russia, France, India and Japan. She worked for several of the largest publishing houses in her native country, including “Detskaya Literatura”, “Detgiz” and Malysh”. She is particularly famous for her illustrations for classic Russian fairy tales, including “Ruslan and Lyudmila“and “Silver Hoof”. Marina Evgenevna was one of the anchor artists on the famous children's’ journal “Murzilka” from 1958 to the late 1960s. In total, her illustrations have been printed in more than 115 million books and postcards. Applying watercolour, indian ink and gouache in warm and gentle colours, she saw daily life through the eyes of a child. Her illustrations are detailed, yet with a simple and very light touch, and she showed the joy of being a child, even in an adult world that you do not always understand. Her “private” art focused on lyrical landscapes and still-lives, and she painted many colourful and bright landscapes in gouache from the regions around Moscow, mainly from Tarusa, where her dacha held a special place in her heart. She also painted many oils and gouaches of her local Moscow neighbourhood around Kievskaya and Dorogomilovskaya. Marina Evgenevna continued the tradition of her grandfather Vasily Navozov, artist and Academy member, and for many years her life was connected to famous Moscow artist and academician Boris Uspensky. Her art changed over time, but always in her very personal and highly recognizable style. From the late 1960s onwards she moved away from her classical realism into a more expressionistic and symbolic world. From the late 1980s she watched, and was inspired by, the changes in everyday life happening in the transition from the Soviet Union to the new Russia. This was for example reflected in her colourful, often red or orange, images of the New Russian Women – as she called them – which she boldly and virtuously depicted in scenes from every-day life. Her favourite media in her later years was the colour pencil, with which she depicted daily life in Moscow, be it in the Moscow metro or evenings at the theatre or the ballet. Marina Evgenevna was an artist of a rare magnitude. She mastered the classical skills of drawing, her touch is deft and precise, but she did not let that fact limit her creations. She stayed young in her art, developed with the times, and even her late art enjoys a tremendous success in the Moscow art scene. EXHIBITIONS 1953 2nd All-Union exhibition of students’ graduation works 4th exhibition of book illustrators, Moscow 1954 All-Union art exhibition, Moscow 1956 The Soviet Book, Paris 1957 6th exhibition of book illustrations, Moscow Young Artist to the Youth Festival 3rd exhibition of young Moscow artists 1958 4th exhibition of young artists, Moscow Youth exhibition, 40 Years of Komsomol, Moscow 1960 Illustrations in Soviet children's' books, Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark 1962 30 Years of the Moscow Artists’ Union, Moscow 1964 Exhibitions in Czechoslovakia, Canada, Yugoslavia Moscow - Our Capital, Moscow 1965 Group exhibition on ul. Vavilova 65, Moscow Graphics artists of the South-West of Moscow 1966 Exhibition in DDR Autumn exhibition of Moscow Artists Second Republican exhibition, Soviet Russia, Moscow 1967 All-Union exhibition in the Manezh, Moscow Moscow Artists - 50 Years Anniversary of the Revolution 1971 1st All-Russian exhibition of drawing, Moscow 1st All-Russian exhibition of book graphics, Moscow 1973 10th exhibition of Moscow book illustrators 1974 11th exhibition of Moscow book illustrators 1976 12th exhibition of Moscow book illustrators 1977 2nd All-Russian exhibition of drawing, Moscow 1978 Group exhibition, artists of children's' books, Moscow 1979 13th Exhibition of Moscow book illustrators 1981 6th All-Union exhibition of watercolour, Moscow 1982 50 Years of the Moscow Artists’ Union - 1932-1982 1983 3rd All-Russian exhibition of drawing and watercolour 1984 VIII All-Russian exhibition of watercolour, Baku 2nd All-Union exhibition of drawing, TsDKh, Moscow 7th All-Union exhibition of watercolour, Moscow 2nd All-Russian exhibition of drawing, Moscow 1985 16th exhibition of Moscow book illustrators 40 Years since Victory, Moscow 1987 3rd All-Russia exhibition of book graphics, Irkutsk 8th All-Union exhibition of watercolour The Artist and Time, Manezh, Moscow All-Union exhibtion The Land of the Soviets, Moscow 1st All-Union exhibition of graphics 1988 3rd All-Russian еxhibition of book graphics 1990 Personal exhibition, Gallery Diagramma 32, Napoli, Italy 2nd All-Union graphics exhibition 1991 9th All-Union exhibition of watercolour, Moscow All-Union exhibition of drawing, Moscow 1997 From the artists to the city of Moscow, 850th anniversary of Moscow Personal exhibition in Napoli, Italy 1999 All-Russian exhibition in the Manezh, Moscow All-Russian exhibition “The Boldin Spring”, 200 Years of Pushkin, Moscow 2000 All-Russian exhibition “Your Name” to the 2000th Birthday of Christ, Moscow 2001 “Personal collections”, House of Artists, Moscow 2002 70 Years of the Moscow Artists’ Union, Moscow 2005 60 Years of the Victory, Malii Manezh, Moscow BIBLIOGRAPHY 1963 “children's’ Books Illustrators” by Ella Gankina (pp. 201, 203) 1977 “Contemporary children's’ Books Illustrators, by Ella Gankina, (pp 135, 195) 1978 The journal “Detskaya Literatura” (August) 1997 The journal “Khudozhnik”, volume 4 2003 Russian Artists’ Union 2004 “XX-XXI Century - Graphics and Oil Painting”, pp. 165, 185