The surname Tutunjan seemed to me, a Vologda boy, especially northern, and Janna - the name of some quiet people lurking along the shores of bottomless forest lakes. I remember how surprised I was when I learned that the name and surname of the artist were originally Armenian.
favorite window
And shines in bad weather.
Miraculous. It -
Above all in the world.
Lucky Window.
He was stabbed.
Don't think that you
We have forgotten the way.
Believe - and fly
To the treasured road!
And I will be again
At the sweet threshold...
Gianna Tutunjan
I remember this window...
It was summer at its zenith, thunderclouds were thickly blue over the forest, and our jeep either dived into ravines, then strainedly creaked uphill, then flew down the mountain, raising clouds of dust. So twenty years ago I flew at full speed, scaring chickens, into the village of Sergievskaya, to visit the artist Janna Tutundzhan.
I grew up in Vologda and went to exhibitions Tutunjan in the art gallery with my grandfather. Grandfather with tenderness found his village childhood in her paintings, and I fell in love with the cheerful pure colors of Tutunjan, its open spaces, snow and sky - everything is sonorous, like her name - Gianna.
She moved to Vologda from Moscow in 1961 - following her artist husband Nikolai Baskakov.
...From two roots my foundation:
Raised by grandmother Snezhkov,
And the one by whom my father was given,
Warmer and hotter than all southerners ...
Frost and the Sun, as two forces -
Armenia and you, Russia.
And I was born on the Arbat,
And Sivtsev Vrazhek is the cradle...
Soon, Nikolai and Gianna bought a house on the outskirts of the village of Sergievskaya, where they sailed along the Sukhona on ... a makeshift raft.
About places like Sergievskaya, we are used to talking about "deaf village", without noticing that the most remote villages in our cities are more remote. And the larger the city, the more silent it is, the more unresponsive to human grief.
How they met Gianna in the village, recalls Dekabrina Shalashova (in a letter to the Vologda journalist N. Veselova): “There was a rumor in the village - the artist is coming to us, she will live in the summer, draw our people, at home. During the big break, the whole school ran to look at her , as a curiosity. There were few strangers in the village then, not only there were no televisions, you can’t hear the radio in every hut. Somehow a photographer came to our school, so we almost trampled him! And here is an artist, and even with a non-Russian surname - how not to look! ..
And when Tutunzhan began to make the first sketches for the painting "Young" from me, I told her: "All the artists draw beautiful people, but I seem to be ugly, why did you choose me?" - "You still don't know how beautiful you are!" She smiled and replied...
And for half a century now, the southern name of Janna (and many call her Zhdanochka) in Sergievskaya is as familiar to hearing as the local names: Shevdenitsy, Khavdenitsy, Tyureber, Madovitsy ...
“My favorite state: in winter to live alone on the edge of the village,” says Zhanna Tadzhatovna. “During the day I write snow and people. And in the evening, when I heat my stove, I will go along the upper or lower tenement. And without knocking I will open any door. warmth... And I will draw and listen how to drink, this life! And it will pass through me... And after having a meal, I will go to my place, tipsy with happiness, communicating with something important, genuine, expressed in living words ..."
So in the verses of Gianna all the words are alive, dear.
Tit is blue.
Tit - canopy.
Tomorrow will be
Clear day.
Tomorrow will be Blue March.
And again the sun
In excitement!
And will be again
Melting snow.
Will come again
Warmth for everyone.
Again dripping drops
April will follow.
And the streams will run again.
They will float away, as if no one's,
All my sorrows and troubles.
And I will live to win...
An exhibition of works by People's Artist of Russia Janna Tutundzhan has opened in Moscow at the art gallery of the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War on Poklonnaya Hill.
The exhibition will run until the end of April.
Dzhanna Tadzhatovna Tutundzhan
The art of the People's Artist of Russia, Janna Tadzhatovna Tutundzhan, has been one of the most famous and, most importantly, beloved among fans of the fine arts of the Russian North for nearly half a century. She entered the national art with works about the life of the northern village, rare in terms of the strength of truthfulness, organicity and purity of sound.
Janna Tutundzhan was born on September 22, 1931 in Moscow into a family of employees. In 1944, Janna entered the Moscow secondary art school, in 1953-1959 she studied at the Moscow State Art Institute. IN AND. Surikov. In 1959, together with her husband, artist Nikolai Baskakov, Gianna moved to his homeland in Vologda. The couple travel a lot - sailing in a boat, kayak, raft. Traveling through the Vologda land, the artists settled in 1964 on the high bank of the Sukhona in the village of Sergievskaya, Tarnogsky district. And for the fifth decade this village has been the most expensive place in the world for Gianna Tutunjan. In this village, as in a drop of dew, all the joys of life and all its sorrows are reflected. Coming there every spring, and being there until the very cold, she feels in her place. And about what kind of relationship the artist had with the village people, her works speak.
The first fame for the author was brought by wonderful drawings. Made with charcoal, sauce, felt-tip pen, they struck with unfeminine power, generalization leading to a symbol. The artist had access to both drama and lyrics, her line worked wonders, either caressing or injuring. This is how the famous sheets “Victory Day”, “March 8”, “Son of a Son” and many others appeared. But the gift of a preacher, a teacher of life, powerfully appealed to a wide audience. And graphics is an art that is too intimate for such purposes. So there was an appeal in the 1960s to painting. She began to write large plot canvases, never dividing her work into types, believing that both in the picture and in the drawing she does one thing. The graphic beginning seriously influenced the features of her canvases. In them, the author's attitude to creative tasks was manifested with particular force: she never wastes her energy on vain petty topics. Only important, only eternal. And in this regard, Dzhinna Tutundzhan is close to the high classics.
In 1968, the painting "Young" appears, and in 1969 - the painting "Forget-Me-Not". Both works have become programmatic in the artist's work. In them, Tutunjan formulates the fundamental tasks and principles of his art. The main types of her canvases were a plot painting with symbolic overtones, a one-figure composition or a portrait with a lyrical sound. The predominance of the idea, meaning over the specifics of the natural impression determines the method of adding the image in the art of Gianna Tutunjan. Long thoughts about what he saw are crowned with lyric-epic generalizations, often leading to an image-symbol. Metaphor and allegory have become ways of embodying the idea of a work. So in the painting “Young”, the girl’s face is likened to a liquid ruddy apple, the eyes of the heroines in the canvas “Forget-Me-Not” are like modest northern flowers, and they themselves are unforgettable, forever remembering everything that happened. Less often in the arsenal of the artist there are allegories. The names of Tutunjan's paintings are very important, they define the essence of the image ("Clear", "Hope", "Bereginya"). The artistic image is often built on a proverb (“There is strength”, “All trades”, “An apple from an apple tree”), a line of a song or a poem (“Burn brightly”, “Black Raven”, “Sail whitens”).
The artistic features of Tutunjan's paintings are close to monumental painting. And this is natural, since the inner content of her works is akin to a fresco, it is dedicated to universal problems and addressed to a large audience of viewers. The monumental features of her works are the large size of the canvases, the generalized nature of the interpretation of forms, the significant role of the silhouette, the wide planes of local color, the work in the tempera technique, the attitude to color as a means of expressing the lyrical and symbolic concept of the work. The attitude to their creative tasks brought Tutunjan closer to the advanced trend in our art, which appeared in the years of the artist's youth - "severe realism".
In the art of Gianna Tutunjan there has never been a line between painting and graphics. Often the same heroes became characters in paintings and drawings. The artistic structure of her paintings is often based on the graphic silhouette of figures (“Forget-Me-Nots”), in another case, the paintings tend to be monochrome in color, when the color scheme is reduced to a combination of black and white tones, or one saturated color stands out in this range, which is explained by dramatic the nature of the works ("Bird Market", "Free - Will", "Savior").
The landscape, although it occupies a small place in the artist's painting, plays its own special role in the work of Tutunjan as a whole, being the emotional tuning fork of many of the master's paintings. It is in landscape motifs made from nature that the author expresses his boundless delight in the beauty of the world. They feel her open, not corrected by consciousness emotion. Therefore, in landscapes, we can most of all hear the voice of the artist's soul.
It is very important and necessary to talk about art, to analyze the features of certain canvases and drawings, but, as Auguste Rodin said, “there is nothing more artistic than loving people.” These words seem to be specially said about Gianna Tutunjan. Throughout her human and creative destiny, she has been and remains an example of true service to art. Art not far away in the sky, but close and necessary for the very people who look at us from her canvases and drawings. All her actions are driven by love, admiration and compassion for them.
Since 1959, D. T. Tutunzhan has been a participant in regional, interregional, all-Russian, all-Union, international art exhibitions. Since 1964 he has been a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR, since 1972 he has been an Honored Artist of the RSFSR. She is a laureate of the Vologda Komsomol Prize. A. Ya. Yashina for 1971, laureate of the State Prize of the Vologda Oblast in fine arts and architecture for 2006. Since 2004 she has been a People's Artist of Russia, since 2007 - Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts since 2007.
Personal exhibitions of painting and graphics: Vologda (1969, 1981, 1991, 2001, 2006), Moscow (1983, 2003), Leningrad (1983), Veliky Novgorod (2009), Danilov, Yaroslavl region (2008), museums of the Vologda region (2000) -e). The artist's works are in the collections of museums in the Vologda region, in the art museums of Arkhangelsk, Ivanov, Kaluga, Karaganda, Kirov, Kostroma, Petrozavodsk, Syktyvkar, Novokuznetsk, Penza, Tomsk, Tula, Ulyanovsk, in private collections in Russia.
20 questions to Janna Tutunjan
The name of the Honored Artist of the RSFSR Janna Tutundzhan is surrounded by legends: she is capricious, she speaks the truth to the eye, which is not at all typical for today's intellectuals. She does not like to give interviews very much, and does not favor journalists, does not tolerate the publication of her photographs (which forced us, changing traditions, to place here two female portraits of her work, instead of a photo of their author).
But this is in the legends. And in life - judge for yourself ...
Janna Tadzhatovna, are you a happy person?
From a practical point of view, yes. Everything is fine. I am not alone. Adult children Favorite work. There is a place to live. But if you approach from the point of view of creativity, I can’t say this.
This is because what you see is too far from what you get. I feel this disconnect very strongly. It burns and torments so much that it is simply impossible to feel happiness.
Gamzatov seemed to say: “Happiness, where are you?” “But I’m behind that river that you haven’t crossed yet.” “Happiness, I crossed this river. And I am behind the pass, where you have not entered yet. It's very close to me, I understand.
And if you, as an artist, had to draw happiness, how would you depict it? Just Happiness.
Simply Happiness... I have never had such an image... Well, probably, as a woman - motherhood. Maybe it's not Happiness, but instinct. But it is felt by Happiness, which cannot betray you. Until betray. Unless, of course, fate intervenes. But, you are probably asking about something else?
Actually, as one boy said: Happiness is when you are understood. Your soul is understood. If it is, the person is happy.
What brings you to our city?
Husband is from Vologda. We studied together at the Moscow art school, in the same class. at the Surikov Institute. True, at different times. I believe that Kolya has been given more from God. He entered the institute - from the first call, and I - from the third. From him I heard the first stories about Vologda. He was the first to introduce me and lead me through this land. He taught me to always do what the soul lies to. Kolya is always quite strict and critical in evaluating my work, so his opinion is very dear to me.
Do you remember your first visit to the Vologda region?
I first came here in 1951. No, even earlier. Earth, people, some very special world struck immediately, sat down with a splinter. And then it suddenly took root, stretched deep into the earth, and sprouted in some of its sensations. In theory, the Vologda residents should have met me with distrust. I myself would not have believed an artist with that name. But then she was probably stupid and didn’t pay any attention to it. And I lived quietly, despite the fact that the Vologda land is not my native land. I did what was dear to me. I am happy that fate has thrown me to Vologda, now to my village. In Moscow, I could neither live nor work. Even when I was studying, I felt like a black sheep, despite the fact that I was born in the capital.
I'm afraid to make a mistake, but it seems to me that the Vologda residents do not consider you not one of their own. The name and surname are simply unusual for hearing. By the way, what does it mean?
Tutun means tobacco in Armenian. Jan is good. If in Armenia they wanted to caress you, they would definitely say: Nina-jan.
Do you often visit Armenia?
No. Was only once. Mostly in the mountains. Listened to songs. In Russia, the songs are so flat, lingering, sad. Designed for a long journey. And in Armenia - high as mountains. Hot as the sun. Fast as rivers. I was completely captivated by Armenian architecture. If Georgians are born with an innate sense of hearing, then Armenians are born with an innate sense of stone. The houses are different from each other.
Do you love to travel?
Perhaps yes. As a girl, I wanted to become a sea captain. Travel all over the world, see as many people as possible. Learn their songs and draw. Over time, the child's desire narrowed down to the needs of one village and region. With age, I realized that one village can be the whole world. And to proceed and understand what surrounds you, even life is not enough.
There was such an artist Vermeer. He mainly painted his workshop. Traveled nowhere. But he is a great artist of beauty and expression of the spirit of human life. So in order to express a person, it is not at all necessary to go far. Although in its own way it is very interesting.
How did you feel when you returned home?
There is an artist I know in the capital. He usually says about the province: everything here is boring, gray, ordinary. It is in Moscow that life is seething. And here - I'm sitting, looking out the window - snow .., snow .., snow. I get on the train, look out the window and see - snow! Snow! Snow! Such purity all around. All troubles are covered with snow.
I don’t remember who, when asked what color Russia is, said green and blue. I would add - white and hot. Not without reason in Rus' they love the color red and they say: the girl is beautiful, the red corner, beauty, beauty. Everything from red, from hot.
At your personal exhibition, we saw a new work "Fire". Art critics call it a milestone in creativity, Tutunjan. Why did you turn to this topic?
Every person has a sense of time. Mio also wanted to express what I feel now. What is happening now and is happening around me. While making conversation sheets, I was in a hurry to draw old women and old men. I felt that life was running out, there were fewer and fewer of them. And these people's way of thinking comes from conscience, from the Christian faith, some kind of human. She made me live differently, with an eye on myself. Not for what a person does not have - housing, clothing, food.
In a village on the Sukhona, I began to draw one woman. And Pavla Ivanovna Meledina told me a parable: “Two are watching each of us. An angel and a demon. When you do a good deed, your angel rejoices, and the demon is indignant. When you do evil, your angel grieves, and the demon laughs. Then the human soul burns...
Perhaps this is what happens to all people today?
The foundation of life is crumbling. The concepts of good and evil are confused. Idols are thrown down. Fading ideals. The soul of our people is on fire. God forbid that she charred completely. These feelings piled on and on for me. And in the summer in the village, I saw how my daughter came to her parents. She is in the center of the picture ... Now the villagers say that the old people will see and be offended. But it's not them. This is a collective image. All of us and the work generated by us. After all, in fact, we launched it all. It's easier to assume that someone came, messed up and left. And where were we? Where were we looking? Some foreigner will come and abuse your wife. Will you sit and watch? Did the conquerors come to us? No. We are all trying to find someone to blame. But did they remove the crosses from their churches? True, at the behest of someone, but themselves? So, they could not unite and show themselves to the people. Declaring that we will not do this and that's it... Now they are looking for ways out of the crisis... I don't know, maybe some kind of economic miracle will happen, and we will all have it. But it seems to me that this will happen only when we feel that we are a people. And not just rednecks waiting in line to be thrown out to us. Little Poland is easier to hold on to. She knows what she needs. And Russia is a huge country. She has so many things. Therefore, "Fire" really wanted to once again draw attention to what is happening to us.
- "Waiting", "Hope", "Time to live", "Bereginya". The theme of motherhood occupies a significant place in your work. Why?
Probably because in our life the word "mother" is more common in a black word than in concern for human destiny. With this name we lay the foundation of the building, we build it, we cover the roofs. We live in the house. With a black name This is done completely thoughtlessly. But it just amazes me. No nation has such a mockery of the word "mother". When any nationality needs to swear strongly, they try to do it in Russian ... It seems to me that today our whole life has sprouted this obscenity. But there must be some moral barriers! Looking back at a person and begins with the mother! Maybe first with the Mother of God, then with the human mother. If a person respects his mother, he cannot commit a crime, raise his hand against a living being.
I watch different families. Where a mother knows how to create warmth, she herself is like a hearth where one can warm oneself, confess. Now, in our troubled times, a person must lean his soul somewhere to something. It is no coincidence that in families where there are grandmothers, it is warmer. And children grow up kinder there. Grandmother is also a mother, only an old one. She just has time to touch the baby. And he leans against this kindness, grows up completely different. It seems to me that a woman is closer to nature than a man. Just like a child. And if he lives among good dogs, cats, cows, birds, forests, rivers, sky, he grows up much better. And never be equal to a city person and a village person. Let the villagers be embraced by the lesser culture, the paraphernalia of civilized life. But it does not make a person happier, better, cleaner. It's just that village life is now confusing people. They even have nowhere to show what they really are.
How did you get on the talk sheets?
Everything worked out by itself. It's just that in addition to long, large works, I also did graphic works at the same time. I met different people, drew them. Sometimes their thoughts, reasoning seemed very interesting. Well; for example, "... I pull a lomovina from the beginning. Of all the old women, it seems that I work alone on the collective farm. Ours is going to zero! ..". And on the field of the picture appeared records.
Once I was drawing an old woman, and everything she said, she took and wrote down. Then she repeated it again and again. And I thought: why hide people's thoughts when you can leave them in the drawing itself. I’m on fire from the words of my old women, maybe someone else will be touched ...
Good for the artist, some say. - You want - you write. Wanted - play the fool. There are no bosses or subordinates. What do you think?
You are constantly in a state of either thinking about a topic, or fighting with yourself. More precisely, not a struggle, but overcoming oneself on the way to what you want to express. I usually do work for a long time. Some ripen for more than one year. I live with them, I suffer, I suffer. And when the work is done, I feel dissatisfaction with what could have been done better.
Who in your family does housework?
Usually my husband and I share everything in half. But now, especially before the exhibition ... I am very grateful to Nikolai Vladimirovich: he literally took everything upon himself.
Do you, like any housewife, apparently have some specialties?
I wouldn't wish such a hostess to anyone... I remember when the children were still going to kindergarten, my husband bought sausages and said: "Make mashed potatoes." I took and did. The children came and said: "Mommy! Mashed potatoes! .. What are we, princes or what? .." That says it all.
What attracts you in people?
I think you can see it at work. When you plunge into the intercourse of three or five old women, although they rarely gather in such a number now, you come out somehow radiant. They radiate something in their speech and in their thoughts. But when I get into the environment of the young, I feel bewildered. Where did the Russian language go? What is happening to them today? Although youth itself is interesting, it attracts with beauty and health ... I see how villages are dying. If earlier they were flooded with different reservoirs, now they are being sucked in by time. I'm afraid that soon there won't be a single Russian village left. Perhaps that is why the inner voice haunts: "Junk, hurry, hurry. There is still time."
Are there only artists among your friends? Or are there people of other professions? Why are they dear to you?
There are those and others. I usually let into my soul those who are open themselves. I don’t know what I myself mean to them, but my friends are dear to me precisely for this. I do not like people with double morality, double bottom. With age, the circle of friends narrows. Feel the difference between a friend and a friend.
What are your passions - musical, artistic?
Spiritual music. Grieg. Chaikovsky. Sviridov. All this is like islands in a sea of folk singing.
In different periods of life addictions change. You suddenly start paying attention to something more, to something less. And yet the general background for me remains Egypt, the best in the Greek classics, the Italian Renaissance. Russian icon. It has always been, and still is, awe-inspiring. Among Russian artists - Surikov, Nesterov. From the Soviet - Korin, Deineka. The most expensive is Viktor Popkov.
And the last question... You came into the literary and artistic life of our region at the same time - Belov, Rubtsov, Fokina, Romanov, Tutundzhan. People with their own life position, with their own vision of the world. For some - in poetry, for others - in prose. You are in painting. Do you experience the influence of Vologda writers in your work, and how are your relationships with them developing today?
You know, when journalists or art historians tie me into a galaxy of Vologda writers, I feel embarrassed. I don't think I have the right to. They - Belov, Fokina, Rubtsov, Romanov and all others - are the children of this land. And, unfortunately, I was born in the Sivtsev-Vrazhek lane on the Arbat. On asphalt. Much to my regret. However, there is nothing to flap your wings. As fate has developed, so it has developed. Maybe this is a vain feeling ... But at the same time, what they do is dear to me. And it doesn't matter at all.
And speaking of influence... It seems to me that writers go in their own circle, in their own orbit. They certainly influence each other. But most of all they are influenced by their native land, its troubles and torments. What was she like, what happened to her now.
Communication... There used to be more of it. Now, unfortunately, less. Maybe now people generally try to withdraw into themselves? ..
The interview was
The national nature of the artist's work, the value of his art lies in the fact that he creates his works about the people and for the people. Artistic creations created by Janna Tutunjan are truly folk. This is confirmed by the exhibitions of works by Janna Tadzhatovna on Tarnoga land, feelings, emotions that overwhelmed the visitors of these expositions, ordinary people, residents of her "Spring Country". The first exhibition was organized in 2003.
“I am very pleased,” writes Honored Cultural Worker Ugryumova G.A., “and the museum staff to work on preparing the exposition of paintings by Janna Tutunjan together with their author. Before that, small exhibitions were held, even exhibitions of three paintings. Zhanna Tadzhatovna anxiously took care of everything: how the works would be arranged, what kind of light would be, whether it would be convenient for visitors. The opening of the exhibition took place on March 24. It was a significant event in the cultural life of the Tarnoga region.
Visitors to the exhibition saw in the works of Gianna Tutunjan what surrounded them in life: their native nature, their fellow countrymen. For Tarnozhan it was a discovery of themselves, their loved ones. Few have been to Sergievka and seen real people depicted in the paintings, but the secret of true art lies in the typification of the characters' characters, so many see themselves in the heroes of this or that work. Only works of painting were presented at the exhibition "Spring Country". Here is the picture "Young", written in Sergievka in 1967. This work by Gianna Tutunjan has become a program. Several people claim to be the prototype of this painting, including two women who live in Tarnoga. Dekabrina Shalashova tells about the creation of this picture. In fact, this is a collective image of a young blue-eyed northern woman, personifying young Russia. The picture leaves a festive, bright feeling of the affirmation of life. At the center of any exhibition is Forget-Me-Nots. (1969), also a software work. All three characters have blue eyes. The dark face of my great-grandmother, combined with a black scarf, produces a feeling of wisdom, pain for the experience. The second heroine is a daughter. But she is from a completely different family. It was painted by Janna Tutundzhan with Likhacheva A.F. , and granddaughter with Nina Maltseva.
"The Last Horse" Everything is clear to the audience, because now there are no horses. And before - all the hard work in the field, on the farm lay on the horses. Sad picture. Therefore, the face of the woman - the groom is so mournful and the eyes of the horse are so sad, it seems they are filled with tears. Zhanna Tadzhatovna copied her heroine from Anastasia Petrovna Yezhova, a simple collective farmer. Now she is no longer alive. The Tarnozhans were also impressed by the painting "Carrying His Cross". This picture also has a real basis and a real prototype. This is Maltsev Anatoly Alexandrovich. He is 60 years old. He still lives in Sergievskaya. January 3, 2012 we managed to get acquainted with his fate. All his brothers and sisters went to the cities, and he alone remained in his parents' house: it was necessary to take care of his mother, as she was sick. Gianna Tutunjan even wrote a poem about his fate (see appendix). And his personal life did not work out. After burying his mother, he lives alone in a huge log house above Sukhona itself. Therefore, his eyes are also sad, some kind of doom is felt in him.
All the spectators carefully looked at the "Root of the Family" - in the center is an elderly woman, who was left alone - all alone. On this wall are portraits of a husband who died in the war, two daughters who got married and left their parental home. Such is fate. The prototype of the heroine is Alexandra Stepanovna Gladkonogih. She is no longer alive. "Last Snow" In the center is my grandmother Tanya, who was my father's nanny. A white scarf (fatka - that's what the northerners called it), a white apron - this is probably the last grandmother's outfit - that's why the picture is called so metaphorically "Last Snow".
These picturesque canvases leave no one indifferent, their main characters are ordinary people, friends and relatives of Zhanna Tadzhatovna, drawing them, she took all their pain, worries and thoughts on herself, transferring them to her canvases, therefore her works are so lively and realistic. Each picture makes you think about something. Olga Mikhailovna Silinskaya, the guide of the Spring Country exhibition, says: “Many visitors came to the exhibition every day. They didn’t miss a single picture, they carefully examined it, asked a lot, some cried, maybe recognizing their mothers, grandmothers, and maybe themselves in the heroes of these picturesque canvases. Gianna Tutunjan herself wrote: “The world was created beautiful and formidable, and life weaves its canvas of suffering and joy. But if you write one grief - there will be nothing to breathe. Neither herself nor people.” This is how the artist saw the surrounding life with a sensitive look, understood, felt with every string of her quivering soul, therefore her paintings breathe, look, smile, bloom, bringing joy and making you think.
Each portrait, sketch, or genre work is a whole story, the plot of which is our life. The well-known painting "Bereginya" was also in the center of the exhibition. The painting is a symbol of maternal love and care. The heroine of the work is a woman - a mother, hugging her three sons. What could be more luminous than this picture? This work should be hung in every maternity hospital so that mothers do not abandon their babies. The picture also has real prototypes: these are Lyuba Yezhova and her three sons: Viktor - works in Tarnoga in the police; Vasya is in Vologda, the younger Andrei serves in St. Petersburg. The Yezhovs' house also stands on Veresovka, next to the artist's house. This is the last inhabited house on the street.
Interesting picture "Fire". She interested many Tarnozhan. The work has a storyline. The parents of the main character - people - workers, everything, as the Sergovites say, they tried to do for their daughter. The artist draws attention to their laboring hands. But the daughter fell in love with an easy life, bright as the scarf that covers her shoulders. She left the village for Gatchina and forgot about her father and mother. And now they are no longer alive. And the house, which is also located on Veresovka, collapsed. I would like to hope that grandchildren will return here or great-grandchildren.
Pictures where the main characters are children are wonderful. "Crane" - in the life of Igor; "Bright Soul" - Lena Maltseva; "The Girl in the Red Corner" - Sasha arriving from Severodvinsk; "Guest", "Voronenok"; "Bullfinch"; "Spring". Who knows, maybe one of them will return to his native village and will understand it, as the chairman of the SEC, Igor Lvovich Maltsev, is doing now, at the present time, after talking with whom, Zhanna Tadzhatovna was completely happy: she found a like-minded person in him . The first thing they decided to do in the village was to build a chapel. Igor Lvovich in a conversation with us said that the chapel will definitely be in the village.
Love for people illuminates the entire art of the artist with inner light, makes him wise, kind, inspiring hope.
Northern nature is presented at the exhibition “Spring Country in the series of paintings “April House”, “Road”, “May on Salanga”, “Mayskaya Sukhona”. The landscape in these works is special: clear, bright, spring-like clean. Looking at these paintings, we can talk about the fusion of three elements: sky, water and earth. The components of this landscape are repeated, but in an endless variety of combinations - one of the secrets of the unfading appeal of her paintings. A thin, quivering, white-trunked birch that grows under the window of Janna Tutundzhan in Sergievskaya, spreading its branches against the backdrop of the May sky, is waiting for spring renewal, giving hope to everyone who admires it.
Everyone certainly paid attention to the bouquets of bird cherry, bathing, daisies standing in the window, and, of course, the forget-me-nots beloved by the artist, the blueness of which is so gentle and transparent that it evokes a feeling of lightness, airiness of space. But, “in order to collect a bouquet of forget-me-nots, Zhanna Tadzhatovna had to kneel for hours, collecting these long, thin stems of forget-me-nots. I always tried to help Zhanna Tadzhatovna, - says Lyuba Yezhova, - I went out early and, sometimes, picked up a whole basket of these pale blue flowers.
The window, wide open, for the artist was a salvation from the winter city life. “Coming in the spring to the village, to the house on the high bank of the Sukhona,” writes Janna Tadzhatovna, “I forget the city and look with joy through my favorite window. It does not show what is really happening on earth. It is turned to the southeast, and in it everything is illuminated by its own, and I am not tired of looking at it. Flowers, especially wild ones, heal us; they silently look into our souls and help us to forget for a while what is going on around the bad.
For three months the exhibition was visited by 1300 visitors. There was no such person who would leave the museum in these lives without trembling, without a special excitement in his heart.
It was held, according to Olga Mikhailovna Silinskaya, 87 excursions. They came with families, one by one and whole classes and left warm words of gratitude to the wonderful person Dzhanna Tutundzhan for the fact that she was able to understand them, ordinary people, their characters, destinies, their “Spring Country”. Responses - the impressions from the meeting with the art of Janna Tutunzhan were left by the residents of Tarno in a special notebook. This notebook of declarations of love for creativity, thanks for the work and sincere wishes, success, health, good luck in creating new paintings, that Janna Tadzhatovna took her as a talisman.
In some issues of the newspaper "Kokshenga" for 2003. reviews of Tarnozhan residents about the exhibition "Spring Country" were published. I would like to bring some of them.
“What pictures! Miracle! As if we were among the heroes of these paintings, talked with them, the soul of each is visible, the presence is felt. There remains a feeling of joy and purity of spring water, purity of feelings and thoughts. Both the artist and her characters live in pictures, talk to us, talk about their own, native, do not dissemble and do not cunning.
We leave the exhibition inspired and delighted.”
We looked at your paintings, which we liked very much, because they depict rural life, which is very close to us.
Most of all we liked the picture "Free will". In the image of a horse, we saw the life and fate of the village people. Someday people will be able to escape from captivity, gain freedom. Thank you very much".
“Dear master, we sincerely express our gratitude to you. Your skill is simply amazing, it is close to us, dear. Your paintings reflect the life of a Russian person, the life of a Russian village, the life of Russia.”
- “Most of all I liked the picture “Parting”. When I listened to music and looked at the picture, I seemed to hear that the earth was calling this person, she was saying to him: “Come back, stay, you are needed here!”. But he doesn't listen, he leaves. In this picture, I see ourselves, who go to the cities, looking for an easy life, but in fact we are needed here, in the countryside, to help it rise.”
Zhanna Tadzhatovna made not only a great spiritual contribution to the development of the culture of our region, - writes Ugryumova G.A., - but also a material one. In the funds of museums are the works donated by her "Anna - Maria", "Long, long song", "Brothers", "Warrior of Alexander Nevsky", and later - the collection "Conversations in truth, in conscience".
The second exhibition of works by Dzhanna Tadzhatovna Tutundzhan was opened in 2008 at the Museum of Traditional Folk Culture. The newly opened exposition was presented by the artist's graphics: "Sergius places" and "Dialogues", "In truth, in conscience." And again, the source of themes and images for Janna Tutundzhan is the village of Sergievskaya, her “Spring Country”. The artist confesses: “If I lived for a thousand years, I would not have enough time to express everything that I feel in this small corner of Russia.” With the help of a pencil and a felt-tip pen, Janna Tadzhatovna created the Sergius Sheets. The first works from this cycle were completed in 1965. “My own mistress”, “Two unsteadies”, “Shangi baker”, “About bread, about salt”, “Eternal chime”, “Russian”, “Children” and so on. And every hero has prototypes. Without getting confused in any name, surname, the Sergovites name the real people from whom these works were created. "Victory Day" -
We were interested in the graphics of Janna Tutundzhan called “Sheets from Koksharia”, created back in 1968. The inhabitants of Sergievskaya proudly told us that at that distant time their Janna walked on foot to Tarnoga, to Koksharia, overcame 40 kilometers. Her husband accompanied her seven kilometers. In Markush, she stopped and spent the night, and in Tarnog she will stop at the Ugryumovs' house, change into a dry dress and go to sketches. And Andrei Anatolyevich kept saying “The incomparable, unique Gianna”, he admired the courage, diligence, desire to create this fragile woman.
We were particularly interested in two works: “Son of a Son” and “Old Horse”. Let's consider them. "The graphic sheet "Son of a Son" shows the joy of a village old man who holds a baby on his knees in front of him." Such light, such warmth, kindness come from this hero that you involuntarily rejoice with him.
And the old man from the work "Old Horse" probably has no one to transfer his skills to. He is depicted in a white shirt against the background of a blackened high village house with a skate on a hood. “The bewildered look of sunken eyes, the clenched hand of the right hand, pressed to the chest, betrays the sadness of his loneliness. The time is the second half of the 20th century, when the young people were already starting to leave the village, leaving the old people to their fate. We were interested in these works, we decided to find out in which village they were written. We found the story of Zhanna Tadzhatovna herself, how and where she painted these pictures. It was the village of Smetaninskaya, which is located four kilometers from the Zaborye.
At the exhibition in 2008 The Tarnoga Museum also featured the Dialogues created in his youth. This is a kind of diary, "talking portraits" of fellow villagers. Janna Tadzhatovna created a kind of monument to the unique Tarnog dialect. The artist, painting portraits of these ordinary people, listened to Tarnog speech, and she really wanted the whole world to hear the conversations of her acquaintances, their judgments, their opinions. The dialogue is written in pencil right on the picture. Here are just some of the language gems recorded by the artist:
“Do you think Sergovka will live long?” - “So if you rob, the whole forest will overgrow ... All the fields ... If you remember how during the war, they smelled ... without any combustible ... on some combustible tears ... and did not drink your land.”
“The heart can’t stand how they conceive calves along the ridge with a shovel to care for ... a calf - he’s also a man!”
“Oh, how I have delighted the letter - then! She pressed it to her heart - she slept like that!
“How to turn away from wine and smoke. For example, to me personally ... and to the whole of Russia ... "
“The people have become painfully swearing, but some kind of crazy. Why would it? Why would a mother be disturbed and all the while remembering her with an unkind word? After all, the earth trembles every time. It's a sin!.."
“Space does not rule the weather. The people went cold to the ground. Here she is, Mother, and sends off ... And she would need to go to her - then with all our warmth!
These original living statements give a special flavor and warmth to the works of the folk artist.
“There are more old characters in this series. The writing style became more violent. Something disturbs the artist, hurries, does not please. She is worried about the fate of our northern village, the old generation is passing away, the young are leaving their fatherland en masse. Somehow, life will continue in the primordially Russian northern regions.” Will the best features of peasant characters, rooted in the mouth of folk morality, leave together with the generation that has endured the hardships of the great war and post-war formation,” writes teacher, local historian A.A. Ugryumov .
The exhibition of graphic works by Gianna Tutunjan in 2008 became a kind of holiday for the residents of Tarno, for many people a return to their village childhood, to the world of the unique speech of the inhabitants of Kokshenga. Zhanna Tadzhatovna herself was present at the opening of the exhibition and explained the meaning of her works so cordially and kindly that both adults and children left the exhibition inspired, realizing the uniqueness of their native land.
In 2011, a new exhibition - "Faces of Russia", where both painting and graphics were presented. And again the words of Gratitude to this great artist for her work, for her creativity, for her attention, for her love for the Tarnoga land. There were already more than two thousand visitors to both exhibitions. “A low bow to the ground to you, Janna Tadzhatovna,” one of the spectators wrote, “a bow from all great-grandfathers, from us today and future generations of our native corner of big Russia.”
Janna Tadzhatovna Tutunzhan was born in Sivtsev Vrazhka on the Arbat in Moscow on September 22, 1931. On her mother's side, she comes from a family of hereditary Moscow nobles. Paternally related to Armenian roots, but in Armenia itself was only once, in 1955.
Back in the military year of 1944, Tutunzhan began to study at the Moscow Secondary Art School, which for a long time was located in Lavrushinsky Lane, just opposite the Tretyakov Gallery. In 1959 she graduated from the Moscow State Art Institute named after V.I. Surikov.
In 1952, Janna first came to Vologda, and since 1959 she has remained to live and work in Vologda forever. She was brought to the North by her husband, painter Nikolai Baskakov. In one of her interviews, Tutunjan noted: “My husband is a Vologda citizen. We studied together at the Moscow art school, in the same class, at the Surikov Institute. True, at different times. From him I heard the first stories about Vologda. He was the first to introduce me and lead me through this land. He taught me to always do what the soul lies to.
In 1969, the first solo exhibition of paintings and drawings by Tutunjan was held in Vologda. Tutunjan's works of the 1960s were a bold discovery of a new hero and an unusual style of artistic language.
Tutunzhan brought and approved her main and favorite hero in the visual arts of the Vologda region: a simple in life and not at all simple in soul village dweller. In 1969, her central painting of those years, Forget-Me-Nots, appeared. In the village of Sergiyevskaya, Tarnogsky district, the first series of large-format drawings was made with a felt-tip pen and ink with very capacious, directly speaking titles: “My own mistress”, “About bread, about salt”, “Eternal chime”, “Victory Day”, “Son of a son” , "Old spinning wheel - long songs", "Tell me, bro."
Since 1981, every ten years, solo exhibitions of Tutunjan's new works were held in Vologda, which aroused general interest. At first, everyone was surprised and made to think a lot about her paintings-symbols about the exciting problems of the life of the village and modern society: “Parting”, “Bird Market”, “Root of the Family”, “The Last Horse”.
A real discovery was a series of drawings by Tutundzhan “Dialogues. In truth, in conscience." Highlighting her new creative task, she remarked: “So I want the viewer, who believes in Man, looking at people who, according to my concepts, represent the basis of the national spirit, would also hear what these people think about our life."
In the 1980s and 1990s, large-scale paintings-parables appeared in Tutunjan’s painting, in which she sought to respond to the most complex moral and ethical and very difficult historical and cultural phenomena of changing life: “Black Raven”, “Fire”, “Free - will". The art gallery held exhibitions and presentations of these paintings, which became important social events of those perestroika years.
In 1972, Janna Tutundzhan was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. More than thirty years later, in February 2004, she was awarded the honorary title of People's Artist of Russia, which has long been among her loyal admirers.
