Alexander Maxovich Shilov (; born 6 October 1943) is a prominent

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

painter.

Biography

Shilov was born in Moscow. Between 1968 and 1973, he studied at the Surikov Moscow Art Institute. In 1976 he became a member of the

Union of Artists of the USSR The Artists' Union of the USSR () was a creative union of the Soviet artists and art critics embracing the Republics A republic, based on the Latin phrase '' res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a state in which politic ...

. In 1985 he became

People's Artist of the USSR People's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to artists of the Soviet Union. The term is confusingly used to translate two Russian language titles: Народный арти ...

. In 1992 one of the

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

s ( 4164 Shilov discovered by

Lyudmila Ivanovna Chernykh Lyudmila Ivanivna Chernykh (; ; June 13, 1935 – July 28, 2017) was a Ukrainian-Russian-Soviet astronomer, wife and colleague of Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh, and a prolific discoverer of minor planets. Professional career Chernykh was born ...

) was named after him. In 1996 he donated to the Russian Government 365 portraits painted by him. Since 2001 he is a full member of

Russian Academy of Arts Russian Academy of Arts (RAA / rus. РАХ, Росси́йская акаде́мия худо́жеств) is the State scientific Institution of Russian Federation, eligible heir to the USSR Academy of Arts. A founder of RAA is the Governmen ...

In March 2014 he signed a letter in support of the position of the President of Russia

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

on Russia's military intervention in Ukraine.

Works

The speciality of Alexander Shilov are ceremonial portraits, often painted from photographs without even seeing his subjects. He painted more than 600 of them. Hailed in his youth as the great champion of Socialist Realism and patronized by Kremlin rulers, he painted portraits of all the leaders of the Soviet Union and Russia including

Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, his death in 1982 as w ...

Yuri Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov ( – 9 February 1984) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from late 1982 until his death in 1984. He previously served as the List of Chairmen of t ...

Konstantin Chernenko Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko ( – 10 March 1985) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1984 until his death a year later. Born to a poor family in Siberia, Chernenko jo ...

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...

, most of

Cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

s, etc. He also produced portraits of his daughter Mashenka, his mother and grandmother. Shilov's opponents insisted that his portraits are little more than the flattering photographs transferred onto canvas, but his proponents claim a unique realistic style directly inherited from

Dmitry Levitzky Dmitry Grigoryevich Levitzky or Levitsky (; ; – ) was a Russian portrait painter and academician. Biography He was born to , a priest, who was also an amateur painter and engraver and served as his first art teacher. In 1758, he moved to S ...

and

Orest Kiprensky Orest Adamovich Kiprensky (; – ) was a leading Russian portraitist in the Age of Romanticism. His most familiar work is probably his portrait of Alexander Pushkin (1827), which prompted the poet to remark that "the mirror flatters me." Bi ...

. In 1997 one of the leading proponents, the

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

mayor

Yuriy Luzhkov Yury Mikhailovich Luzhkov ( rus, Юрий Михайлович Лужков, p=ˈjʉrʲɪj mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ lʊˈʂkof; 1936 – 10 December 2019) was a Russian politician who served as mayor of Moscow from 1992 to 2010. Before the elect ...

, opened the ''Moscow State Art Gallery of People's Artist of the USSR Alexander Shilov'', just several steps away from the

Moscow Kremlin The Moscow Kremlin (also the Kremlin) is a fortified complex in Moscow, Russia. Located in the centre of the country's capital city, the Moscow Kremlin comprises five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Kremlin Wall along with the K ...

. The gallery is devoted solely to exhibitions of Shilov's work.

References

External links

Website of the Shillov GalleryBiography in Russian
People's Artists of the USSR (visual arts) Full Members of the Russian Academy of Arts 20th-century Russian painters Russian male painters 21st-century Russian painters Soviet painters 1943 births Living people Painters from Moscow Russian portrait painters 20th-century Russian male artists 21st-century Russian male artists {{USSR-artist-stub