Show of Works by the American Painter Nelson Shanks in Tsereteli Art Gallery
Organized by the Russian Academy of Arts, the State Russian Museum and the Foundation for International Art and Education (FIAE), USA, the exhibition in Tsereteli Art Gallery presents over fifty works by the distinguished American artist Nelson Shanks.
On September 16, 2011 Nelson Shanks will officially open his solo show in Tsereteli Art Gallery. The ceremony is planned to be attended by the U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle, diplomats, businessmen, figures of culture and a group of admirers of the artist’s talent from the United States. Prior to that, on September 15, the President of the Russian Academy of Arts Zurab Tsereteli and Nelson Shanks will give master classes in panting and share the secrets of their skill.
Nelson Shanks was born in Rochester, New York in 1937. He studied at the Kansas City Art Institute, at the National Academy of Design in New York and other first-rate art schools. Having decided to study the art of realism, he started his career as an artist working in studios under such masters as Robert Brackman, Ivan Olinsky, Edwin Dickinson and others. His achievements were appreciated and more than once he received the most prestigious for artists-realists grants that provided him with a possibility to perfect his skills under Pietro Annigoni in the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. During that period, he extensively traveled throughout Europe to explore European art.
After his return to the United States, Nelson Shanks taught at the leading art institutions. In his home and studio he founded a school for beginners in painting who lived and studied there free of charge. In 2002 Shanks set up a post graduate school for contemporary realist art entitled Incamminati that is translated from the Italian as Those Who Advance. The school offers a four-year program of study for artists who give preference to realist art.
Of special interest in the artist’s work is his vast portrait gallery of the celebrities, among them are Pope John Paul II, Bill Clinton and Margaret Thatcher, musicians Mstislav Rostropovich and Luciano Pavarotti, Princess Diana and others. Commissioned portraits of noted figures include: His Majesty King Gustav and Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden, Queen Julianna of the Netherlands, former President of the United States Ronald Reagan and many other representatives of the world elite. On display in Tsereteli Art Gallery are also portraits of his models, his still lifes and allegorical scenes.
Nelson Shanks has been a frequent exhibitor in many prestigious art shows throughout the world. His work is in very distinguished European and American museum collections.
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