The Russian Academy Of Arts

The Moscow Government, Culture Department of the City of Moscow, “Stolitsa” Museum and Exhibition Association, Russian Academy of Arts and V. Surikov Moscow State Academy Art Institute present a major retrospective exhibition devoted to the 50th anniversary of the teaching activity at V. Surikov Moscow State Academy Art Institute of Prof. Mikhail Kurilko-Ryumin, the eminent theater designer, Academician and Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Arts.

The show features diploma works by several generations of students who studied under Mikhail Kurilko-Ryumin at V. Surikov Art Institute. Many of them have become renowned artists and recognized masters of theater design and decorative art.

A talented teacher, a man of great erudition and encyclopedic knowledge caring for the fates of Russian art, Mikhail Kurilko-Ryumin has been heading the workshop of theater design and decorative art since 1962. He trains his students to be both professional artists and people of perfect art taste helping them to understand the beauty and richness of the surrounding world.

Mikhail Kurilko-Ryumin belongs to the well-known dynasty of theater designers. He was born in St. Petersburg in 1923. His father M.I. Kurilko, a big connoisseur of art history, is a personification of the whole epoch. He was a friend of A. Nezhdanova, I. Golovanov, I. Kozlovsky, E. Geltser, I. Zholtovsky, A. Messerer, R. Glier and other distinguished figures of art. A talented teacher, brilliant graphic artist and etcher, for many years he was a chief artist of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.

Mikhail M. Kurilko-Ryumin has followed in his father’s footsteps. After his return from the front in 1942 (he fought in the Infantry Division of the Guards and was wounded near Kursk) for several years he worked as an artist in the Kyrgyz Opera and Ballet Theater. In 1945-1951 he studied at the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography under such noted artists as F. Bogorodsky, Y. Pimenov, G. Shegal, B. Dubrovske-Eshke. After the graduation Mickhail Kurilko-Ryumin devoted his life to the theater.

To quote the artist, “the work of a theater designer is a half opened door into the theatre world. On the stage an ajar door is always intriguing: it is left to the spectators to imagine and do some more thinking about what is behind it. Our work is not in illustrating a performance, but in the creation of a mystery to be solved by the viewer himself. Thus, the miracle of co-creation exists in the theater as nowhere else”.

For his long life Mikhail Kurilko-Ryumin has made set designs for over 200 drama and musical performances in many cities of Russia and other countries: in Minsk and Dnepropetrovsk, Ufa and Krasnoyarsk, Ekaterinburg and Kazan, Vladikavkaz, Prague, Budapest and others. He has worked for major Moscow theaters including the Maly Theater, Moscow Art Theater, Ermolova Drama Theater, Theater of Satire, Theater of the Russian Army and others in collaboration with celebrated stage directors – M. Knebel, A. Popov, B. Ravenskikh, A. Efros, A. Shatrin, A. Mambetov.

During his creative work the artist has been true to rich traditions of the Russian theater and decorative art, in particular – the tradition of pictorial set designs. “All his works are distinguished by the refinement of his taste” – said the noted painter N. Andronov about Mikhail Kurilko-Ryumin. His oral stories about masterpieces of world art, artists of various times, numerous articles and publications in newspapers and magazines, his appearances on TV and radio messages reveal his remarkable literature and artistic talent.

In one of his interviews Mikhail Kurilko-Ryumin noted: “Of course, we - set designers are not the most important persons in the theater. But it is set designers who contribute to the first impression when the curtain is raised and the spectators can see a new world created and executed by the artist’s imagination and talent”.

On display in the exhibition halls of the New Manezh turned into a stage space full of theatrical atmosphere are works by over 150 authors - his former students. Mikhail Kurilko-Ryumin continues to take care of his students after their graduation. The most talented of them perform their skills for three years at the creative workshop of theater design and decorative art of the Russian Academy of Arts headed by the artist from the moment of its foundation.

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