The Russian Academy Of Arts

Organized by the Russian Academy of Arts and V. Surikov Moscow State Academy Art Institute to mark the 90th birth anniversary of Mikhail Kurilko-Ryumin, the People’s Artist of the USSR and Russia, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, eminent theater designer, the major retrospective at the Russian Academy of Arts features over 200 works produced by the artist in various years.

A man of great erudition and encyclopedic knowledge, Mikhail Kurilko-Ryumin (1923-2012) belongs to the well-known dynasty of theater designers. He was born in St. Petersburg in 1923. His father M.I. Kurilko-Ryumin, a big connoisseur of art history is a personification of the whole epoch. He was a friend of A. Nezhdanova, 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 Kurilko-Ryumin has followed in his father’s footsteps. After his return from the front in 1942 where he had been wounded, 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. Dubrovsky-Eshke.

For his long professional life Mikhail Kurilko-Ryumin has made set designs for over 200 drama and musical performances in many cities of Russia and other countries. He worked for major Moscow theaters in partnership with celebrated stage directors - M. Knebel, A. Popov, B. Ravenskikh, A. Efros, etc.

During his creative work the artist has been true to rich traditions of Russian theater and decorative art, in particular - the tradition of pictorial set designs. All his works are distinguished by the refinement of his taste, color and compositional correlations. He introduced into his designs specific details typical for a concrete historical epoch thus brilliantly realizing his knowledge of the history of world art and culture. The retrospective also includes the master’s paintings – landscapes of the Moscow region, France, Greece, Spain, Croatia and other countries.

A talented teacher, for 50 years Mikhail Kurilko-Ryumin has headed a workshop of theater design and decorative art at V. Surikov Moscow State Academy Art Institute. Among several generations of his students there are many renowned artists, recognized masters of cinema and theater design such as V.Y. Levental, V.G. Serebrovsky, N.L. Dvigubsky, B.L. Blank, A.S. Boim and many others.

To quote the artist: “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”.

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