The Russian Academy Of Arts

On September 15, 2011 in the atrium of Tsereteli Art Gallery, 19 Prechistenka street, the President of the Russian Academy of Arts Zurab Tsereteli and noted American painter Nelson Shanks gave masterclasses in painting timed to the visit of Nelson Shanks to Moscow and official opening of his solo show in the halls of Tsereteli Art Gallery.

The open masterclasses were attended by students of the Moscow State Academy Art Lyceum and V. Surikov Moscow State Academy Art Institute. For the young artists it was a rare possibility to see the process of a portrait creation by the celebrated artists working in their unique manners.

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.

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 preferences 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.

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.

Photoreport

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