The Russian Academy Of Arts

On April 15, 2008 the Russian Academy of Arts presents a display of paintings by the Moscow artist Mirel Shaginyan. The exhibition features paintings from her family collection created in the 1930s - 1990-s. The centerpieces are paintings from Africa and Crimea series, still lives and portraits distinguished by the master’s high professional skill, elegance and style.

Mirel Shaginyan was born in 1918 in Postov on the Don. In 1948 the artist graduated from V. Surikov State Moscow Academy Art Institute where she majored in painting under the celebrated painter Alexander Deineka. The life and creativity of Mirel Shaginyan have been associated with the Crimea and Koktebel. She has been closely connected with the eastern Crimea from her childhood, when her noted mother Soviet writer Marietta Shaginyan was a frequent guest in the house of the Symbolist poet and critic of literature and the arts Maximilian Voloshin. Mirel absorbed the amazing atmosphere and culture of this poet’s home who hosted countless poets, artists, actors, scientists. In the postwar years, Marietta Shaginyan bought a small cottage there which was later perfected by Mirel and her husband Victor Tsygal.

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