The exhibition "Other Kuril Islands" has opened in the regional art gallery. It is dedicated to the work of the famous Shikotan group - artists who half a century ago opened new creative routes. In Soviet times, they traveled to the Kuril Islands to write extraordinary nature and wonderful people. Recently, this story was continued.

A girl from 1985 looks from the poster of the exhibition. She arrived then in the Kuril Islands with a student squad, and it turns out, she became a real "Shikotan muse."

Evgeny Fomin, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation: “My friend, Yura Myagkikh, an artist, fell in love with a fish processor. And here they are, he painted it, and I two of them. Then he went to Irkutsk after her. He is in Belarus now, she is in Switzerland. ”
In the 70-80s, life in the Kuril Islands was in full swing, especially during the fishing season. Many went there to earn money, and artists - for new experiences. Every year for two or three months they disappeared on the distant islands.

Vladimir Serov, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation: “Once, Evgeny Korzh and I were even half a year, returning with Christmas trees to Vladivostok, I myself am from Ussuriysk.”

Evgeny Korzh, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation: “We were young, we wanted to go away, to see what was around and somehow hooked, stopped.”

Thus was born the famous Shikotan group - the legend of seaside art. Such masters as Vladimir Rachev, Yuri Volkov, Vitaliy Semkin, Anatoly Katsuk and others came out of it ... Friends recall: artists were very loved then and always went towards them.

Natalia Levdanskaya, Deputy Director of the Primorsky Picture Gallery: “It was very easy for artists to get to Shikotan or leave Shikotan. So he came with his sketchbook, with paints - of course, an artist. He will find a place on some seiner. "

The most favorable time in the Kuril Islands is from August to October: clear skies, piercing blue sea, bright green hills and volcanoes. And if you were here in June, says Olga Nikitchik, you see only fog and you write still lifes. But she also had her own Shikotan.

Olga Nikitchik, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation: “These were unusual evenings with fishermen - guitar, songs, communication. True, I did not eat saury for a whole year after Shikotan. But this is an amazing place where everything is perfectly created for the artist. ”

In the 90s, life on the islands calmed down. But in the twenty-first century, young artists were drawn there again. The Kuril Islands are reborn - people come and stay, they build new houses and even centers of modern art there.

Anna Kopytina, member of the Union of Artists of the Russian Federation: “The picturesque nature has always been a creative territory, now some infrastructure has been created there so that artists can comfortably exhibit and hold any events. Residents are waiting for this, they have not enough. They are still in cultural isolation. ”

An exhibition entitled “Other Kuril Islands” is about how artists of the Soviet generation saw these islands and how those who replaced the masters perceive them. The exposition in the halls on Partizansky Prospekt is open until December 11.

Based on materials from VESTI Primorye