The virtuoso craftsman Boris Tikhonravov
cuts a lyrical figure among the Kholui craftsmen. Together with
Baburin, he was one of the most gifted graduates of the local
art school. His early works, such as Dubrousky and Prince Igor's
Campaign demonstrated his extraordinary craftsmanship especially
in landscape painting, which he employed to convey the feelings
and emotions of his characters. His musical nature sought an
outlet in painting, and he seemed to be "singing"
popular songs, such as A Urals Rowan Tree, The Bells Are Ringing,
Ask Me For a Date, Katyusha, Oh, Ye Rye and Flax in Bloom in
his miniatures. Tikhonravov, who died early but managed to leave
behind wonderful works of art, devoted one of his last works
to Sergei Yesenin, a true Russian poet with whom the artist
shared a common world outlook, a similar temperament and a lyrical
gift. Nikolai Starikov, whose life
and work was also, regrettably, cut short very early, immortalised
himself in his caskets, such as A Stone Cutter, Chestnut-Grey
and At the Will of the Pike, which are decorated with images
of rare beauty.
 Pavel
Ivakin, who never had any professional training but mastered
the secrets of lacquer miniature by looking at what his colleagues
did, occupied a special place among the Kholui craftsmen.
He lived a short life, dying at 53, and went down into the
history of the craft as a naive artist with his own vision
of folklore motifs. Superb craftsmanship and extraordinary,
expressive images set his works apart, such as Sadko, Chestnut-Grey,
The Flying Ship, Yevseika's Adventure, Dancing and The Golden
Gate.
Alexei Kosterin also produced some original
and noteworthy works. He had a highly individual style, taking
great pains and much time to create inimitable pieces. His
themes varied from dynamic battle scenes in his Red Horsemen,
On the Attack and A Troika to peaceful Ilya of Murom, The
Monster and The Fire Bird. His master piece, The Legend of
Borka, shows a public prayer by the Nizhny Novgorod troops
led by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky in a pine-tree forest a verst
outside Kholui before their march onto Moscow. It was there
that the monastery, the Borkovsko-Nikolay-evskaya Pustyn,
was founded on the Prince's behest in the 17th century.
Lacquer miniatures are distinguished in multifarious
Russian decorative, applied and folk art by their uniqueness
and beauty, and the gift and craftsmanship of their creators.
Handmade, labour-consuming and intricate, lacquer miniatures
have much in common with easel painting. Nevertheless, these
are pieces of applied art because painting here is utilitarian
and inseparable with the object.
A lacquer miniature is an intimate type of
art, the minute details of which may be missed in exhibition
halls. Miniatures can only be understood and duly appreciated
after scrutiny at close quarters. Kholui miniatures are easily
understood because they are realistic, decorative and focus
on the portrayal of the personality. The character may be
monumental and stern as in Oleg's Prophesy, or gracious as
in Snow Maiden, recklessly mutinous as in Stepan Razin or
formidable as in Svyatogor the Warrior.
Gold is used only when justified, for example,
to paint gold cupolas of churches and cathedrals, helmets,
shirts of chain mail, brocade vestments, the sun, the moon
and the stars in the night sky. This is another feature distinguishing
Kholui from other centres of lacquer miniatures. The Kholui
style continues to evolve today through the painters' relentless
creative endeavours.
Kholui miniatures developed fairly intensively
in the 1970s and the 1980s. New works were made, replenishing
the reserves of the local museum, the Ivanovo and Pless art
museums, the Moscow Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts,
the Folk Art Museum with its largest collection of Kholui
lacquers and the department of the Kulikovo Field Historical
Museum.
More works were made for the market, and the
number of painters also grew. Every year graduates of the
local art school joined the team, worked side by side with
experienced masters, improved their professional skills and
gained experience. The range of local products expanded: there
were already over 700 models, of which painters produced small
series of copies for the market. Objects of new shapes and
purposes appeared, and red, green and cherry-coloured pieces
were added to the traditional black ones.
Kholui lacquers made it to the international
market in 1961. The first commission came from Great Britain
to be followed by those from the US, Germany, France, Belgium
and Italy. That fact and subsequent thirty-year-long exports
promoted the development of the craft, strengthening the economy
and raising the international prestige of Russian lacquers,
including those of Kholui.
During those years painters began to make decorative
lacquer panels. They were far larger than miniatures painted
on caskets and other objects and ranged in size from 50cm
to 350cm. Vladimir Belov was one of the first to paint big
panels. His Fire-Bird, Troika, Oleg's Prophesy and Tsarevna
the Frog looked fresh, fascinating and attractive. Painters
of an older generation, such as Baburin, Denisov, Kiselev
and Fomin, took up the trend and, proceeding from the traditions
of temple murals of the Kharlamov and Zarin schools, produced
inspired works. They found it gratifying to work on panels,
which offered vast opportunities to convey ideas. Younger
painters, who represented the generation of Kholui masters
of the 1960s through the 1970s, also did big panels, including
The Tale of Tsar Saltan and Sadko by Alexander Morozov, The
Little Shepherd and Snow Maiden and Mizghir by Pyotr Mityashin,
Vassily Buslayev by Victor Yolkin, The Tale of a Sleeping
Tsarevna and Snow Maiden by Sergei Dmitriev, Winter Troikas
by Sergei Devyatkin and Sadko by Vladimir Sedov. These talented,
hard-working and persevering painters are well-known by their
works displayed at art shows and museum exhibitions.
Miniaturists are often called "fairy-tale"
painters due to their devotion to Russian folklore themes.
Indeed, tales, epic poems and legends are closer than any
other genre to the imagery and pictorial potentialities of
miniature painting. Kholui painters show special fondness
towards Pushkin's tales, Yershov's Little Hunchbacked Horse,
Bazhov's Urals Tales, Afanasiev's tales and other folk tales.
Pieces with Russian folklore themes enchant by their genuine
sincerity and purity, extol beauty and evoke the sublime in
deeds and aspirations. Free from perfidy, evil, violence and
grief, they give a graphic portrayal of folk wisdom, triumphant
justice and truth. Kholui miniatures are imbued with optimism,
which makes them especially popular, and are designed to give
joy and to please. Their execution is, however, a complicated,
intense and time-consuming process, justifiably referred to
by painters as the "pangs of creation."
In 1984, Kholui craftsmen's association marked
its 50th birth anniversary with a retrospective show at the
local museum. The over 500 best miniature pieces produced
over half a century were put on display and impressed everyone,
professional painters included. Among the exhibits were works
by dozens of painters, starting with the founders of the craft
and ending with commencing painters who brought their first
works to public view. Some pieces dated to the 1930s and the
1940s, others were brand new. The exhibition awoke tremendous
interest, ran throughout August and was then displayed at
Moscow's Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Arts in October.
 The
works on display astounded by the diversity of their themes,
which included fairy tale, historical, battle and even satirical
scenes, as well as portraits, still lifes, ornaments and landscapes.
The viewers' attention was invariably attracted by Victor
Yolkin's Metro and Fireman, Alexander Smirnov's Bath House
and Savage Landlord, Kosterin's Legend of Borka and Baburin's
Old Kholui Fair, Snow Maiden, Pechenegs Besieging a Russian
Town and The Tale of Tsar Berendei. Special mention should
be made of Kiselev's "micro-miniature" caskets,
Belov's nine-sided casket Russian Warriors and panels Stepan
Razin and Boyan, as well as Fomin's caskets Decembrists, Dawn
over Russia and Who Is Well Off in Russia.
Another notable theme was the architectural
landscapes of old Russian cities and invaluable historical
and cultural monuments, including Novgorod, Outside Novgorod,
Pskov-Krom, several versions of Uglich, Old Yaroslavl, In
Yaroslavl, Rostov the Great, several versions of Suzdal, Old
Suzdal, Kideksha, The Church of the Intercession on the Nerl,
Golden Gate, The Vladimir-Suzdal Museum Preserve, The Kremlin.
St. Basil's, The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Optina Pustyn,
Alexan-drovskaya Sloboda, The Trinity-Sergius Monastery, several
versions of Kholui, Kizhi and The Nikola-Shatromsky Monastery.
The exhibition graphically illustrated the
different stages of the development of Kholui lacquers and
the potentialities of local painters and confirmed the craft's
well-earned prestige in modern Russian culture.
In its fifties, the Kholui craft is going
through difficult times due to the general situation in Russia.
The major contradiction between art and production, which
has long caused differences among painters, was settled when
a group of painters formed an independent Artists' Union and
craft workshops under it in Kholui. The old work- shops went
public and reorganized into a joint-stock company. Two distinct
workshops are currently operational in Kholui, developing
the art of miniature painting along the lines of a single
artistic idea. New works are being produced, using traditional
themes and images; icon painting is being revived, albeit
timidly so far due to the loss of tradition. That tradition
is being studied anew and reinterpreted by contemporary painters.
New times dictate new approaches to icon painting, nourished
by a great love for Russia's past and present, indepth knowledge
of the sources, the inspiration and talent of those who have
undertaken the arduous and noble job of reviving the traditions
of old Russian painting. Kholui craftsmen are once again going
through a period of dissatisfaction with their present accomplishments.
Their creative quests aim to breathe life into icon painting
and to produce miniatures on biblical and Gospel themes. These
eternal themes of world art, which have for many years been
banished from Russian lacquers, are being given a new lease
on life at a confluence of past traditions and novel aspirations
of local craftsmen.
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