The State Tretykov Gallery Presents:

         The Tkachev Brothers- "About the Motherland"?

                                                          April 15 to July 17, 2011, Moscow

 

 

Alexei Petrovich and Sergei Petrovich Tkachev, Mothers, 1961

The State Tretyakov Gallery presents a major lifetime retrospective of over 160 canvases by Sergei Tkachev and Alexei Tkachev, from the collection of the State Tretykov Gallery, the artist's private collection, and from collectors around the world. 

The exhibition is dedicated to the 60th anniversary of their joint work and features their work as a continuation of the great tradition of the Russian Realist School of painting.  Interestingly, Sergei and Alexei Tkachev have worked together as one artist on the same canvases since 1950, creating some remarkable masterpieces. They have also worked independently, each of them being a major creative force with their own personalities and styles.  Sergei Tkachev uses sharp brushwork and tends toward large canvases while Alexei Tkachev is a more lyrical painter.  The exhibition consists of two blocks of works. The first section consists of their early works, painted individually and little known to the public.  The second part - the joint work of the masters - shows the great works that resulted when The Tkachev Brothers worked together and combing their separate artistic qualities, thereby producing the phenomenon of the Tkachev Brothers.

Their work is classic Soviet Impressionism and continues the traditions of the Russian realistic school. The Tkachev Brothers are considered by scholars to be the leading realist painters of the 1950s and 1960s and among the best Russian painters of the twentieth century.

The Tkachev Brothers works hang in numerous museums, including the the State Tretykov Gallery in Moscow, the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg and of course in the Tkachev Brothers Museum in Bryansk. Their paintings have been exhibited at the Smithsonian International Gallery in Washington, D.C, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. They both live and work in Moscow

Our American friends on a gallery arranged visit with the Tkachev Brothers at their Studio 2009.

"To see our dear friends the Tkachev Brothers finally receive an all en-compassing career retrospective exhibition in Russia's finest museum of Russian art, The Tretykov Gallery is breathtakingly exciting and so well deserved. Tom McCarthey and I have been dealing with Sergei and Alexei since the early 1990's. We have spent many hours at their feet, listening to their tales of life and art. We have been guests many times both in their small apartment in Moscow as well as their beautiful summer home at the Academic Dacha. These men and their work will be remembered as long as there are people on the planet who love art and beauty.

    

We invite you to visit the exhibition in Moscow. Failing that, please visit us at the gallery and see some of the works by the Tkachev Brothers we have in our collection.  Due to our long and warm relationship with the brothers, we have obtained a great collection of their work and currently have 20 of their paintings available". - Jim Dabakis, The Thomas Kearns McCarthey Gallery

To view available works by the Tkachev Brothers click below:

Tkachev Brothers (Alexei and Sergei),  Sergei P. Tkachev.,  Alexei P. Tkachev

Reports and Images from the Opening, April 15, 2011

 

The Tkachev Brothers: Two Brothers - One Passion 

Masters of Russian Impressionism: Sergei & Aleksei Tkachev

Alexei Petrovich Tkachev (b. 1925)

Sergie Petrovich Tkachev (b. 1922)

Both are graduates of the famed Surikov Institute where they studied under the outstanding artist S.V. Gerasimov.  Both are full members of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, the People's Artists of the USSR, laureates of the Repin State Prize and the State Prize of the USSR.  

    

Readers Note: In compiling biographies for Russian artists, we have sought to keep the exact translations, wherever possible. While this method sometimes produces awkward grammar, such a direct translation, we feel this better helps the reader understand the precise, unvarnished meaning intended

 

 

 

 

 

Sergei and Alexei Tkachev at the Press Opening

The Tkachev Brothers is a name that determined the development of Russian Art of the second half of the 20th century. They were born not far from the town of Bryansk, Chugunovka village. Sergei was born in 1922 and Alexei in 1925. That's where their parents Pyotr Afanaseivich Tkachev and Maria Vasilievna Lemesheva lived as well. Customs and manners of the old times were strictly kept. A bride and a groom were not supposed to see each other before the wedding day. That's exactly what happened to the future parents of the artists. By the end of the 1920s, there were eight children in the family, two of them died of diseases. The family, each member of which worked night and day, lived in the country. Their life was full of trouble and the children dreamt of breaking out of the awful poverty and illiteracy.

 

 

 

The Brothers at work, 1963

The outstanding character traits of the mother and the father seemed to have been mixed in the children. The 

father was a strong-willed, persistent man, possessing that unstoppable kind of energy which kept him busy all the time. As for the mother, being a poetic person by nature, she knew a great deal of Russian fairy-tales and retold them to her children. She also possessed a beautiful voice and was invited to sing on any holiday or wedding held in the village 

In the year 1931, father brought the family to the town of Bezhetsk where the new phase of the future painters' life started. Sergei and Alexei's coming to the Bezhetsk Pioneer (Boy Scout) Center was the beginning of their mutual love for the world of Real Art and they devoted their lives to it. There they met the teachers who recognized real talent in those two boys. In 1938, Sergei entered Vitebsk School of Arts and in 1939 Youth Pioneer Center got a letter, which contained a request to assign Alexei to Moscow Young Talents Secondary School. Alexei accepted the offer without hesitation. The studies were interrupted by the war. In autumn of 1941, Sergei went to war as a volunteer, he came back home in 1945. He was heavily wounded, awarded medals and orders.

Alexie and Sergie in their studio, 1975

In the meantime, the youngsters in the family, including Alexei, left for the city of Sverdlovsk to be evacuated, where the fifteen year old Alexei worked at the military factory. Alexei became a student of the V.I. Surikov Academy, Moscow State Institute of Art, headed by S.V. Gerasimov, who had a special feeling for talent and talented students. He could see that talent in the Tkachev's as well and did his best to help them while they studied at the Institute. G. Ryazhevsky, D. Mochalsky, V. Yakovlev, A. Gritsay and others became their teachers.

"You have to know very well what you paint" became their main slogan and their longing for knowledge was definitely stimulated by their summer practice held in the open. They traveled all over Russia. Their every return from practice was an important event at the Institute. Quality and number of their paintings was like those at the private exhibition. Alexei's graduation work "On Vacation" and Sergei's "For Peace" were given the highest marks and taken to the all-Union Exhibition. B. Johanson and A. Plastov highly praised their works. Since that time, Arkady Plastov closely followed their careers and along the way he treated the brothers was definitely fatherly.

 

 

Alexei and Sergei at the opening April 17, 2011

After graduation, their active life in the sphere of arts started, since that time they have worked together and that's how and when a new painter -- "The Tkachev Brothers" -- was born.  It is a mystery how these men actually paint, known by God only. They participated in all the Republic and all-Union exhibitions, arranged their own shows, and their works were acquired by the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum and other museums all over Russia.

In Bryansk, their home town, The Tkachev Brothers Museum was founded. Such paintings as "In the Field," "Laundry Women," "Kids," "To the Collective Farm," "In Between the Battles," "Mothers," "Wedding," "On the Native Land," "Saturday," "Russian Sauna" and many other became the classic of Russian art. The source of diversity and inexhaustibility of their ideas is life itself. They managed to become celebrated artists and every day life scenes painters not only in Russia, but other countries as well. Their paintings recieved the highest government awards and the State I.E. Repin Prize. The painters themselves got the rank "People's" and became Russian Art Academy members. Since 1974, they were heads of the Artistic Studio of the Academy of Art.

 

Alexei and Sergei speaking at the opening, April 17, 2011

     As for their private lives, they are totally different. Alexei has a family, a wife, a daughter and a granddaughter. Sergei is single, but he was involved in social work for quite a time. First he was elected an Administration Secretary of "Russian Artists Union" and later its Chairman (1976-1987). It was the heyday of Russian art, perfect conditions for painters; life and work were created. At that time, Sergei was a Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

     G. Korzhev said, "Tkachev Brothers are a bright point of Soviet Art and the main characteristic of their paintings is its folk character. Talking about them one can't simply say they have folk roots, they are the body and soul of the Russian Nation. They are closely connected to the people, their thoughts, hopes and dreams."