Alexander Shilov opened the exhibition “They Fought for the Motherland” on the Arbat
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“It was impossible without counterintelligence services during the war. This is the purgatory of the army,” says the artist.
On the occasion of the 78th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, an exhibition of works by People’s Artist of the USSR Alexander Shilov “They Fought for the Motherland!” opened on the Arbat. The author dedicated it to everyone who fought.
Light rain did not prevent the participation of the military band in the ceremony. Under the huge portrait of Marshal Zhukov, which adorns the wall of the house, a platform was installed. Alexander Shilov climbed it, accompanied by announcer Anna Shatilova. In white trousers under an umbrella, she led the ceremony. “Our stunning beauty,” the artist called her. “I look at you with lust and admiration,” the audience perked up at these words. And she was the queen of the event, she addressed the head of the cultural department of Moscow, Alexander Kibovsky, with the words: “My young friend.” And he spoke about the Russian realistic school of painting, named the names of Kiprensky, Borovikovsky, Tropinin, and put Shilov on a par with them as a direct successor of the school. He recalled how the guests who came to the Kremlin were surprised at the line at Znamenka from those who wanted to get into the Shilov Gallery.
And then the gallery went out into the street. Photocopies of more than forty portraits of intelligence officers, counterintelligence officers, pilots and ordinary soldiers were presented on the Arbat. Among them is Gevork Vartanyan, who has worked in different countries for 47 years. He was 21 years old when he came on an important mission to the meeting of Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt to prevent Hitler’s plans. Here is a portrait of Alexei Botyan, the prototype of the legendary Major Whirlwind in the film of the same name. Shilov painted a portrait of the English intelligence officer George Blake, who received forty years in prison in his homeland, but managed to move to the USSR. Here is the famous pilot Popova, who made 852 night sorties during the war years, portraits of cultural figures who participated in the Second World War – Yevgeny Matveev, Sergei Bondarchuk, Viktor Rozov, Jan Frenkel, Vladimir Etush, Sergei Mikhalkov, who was a war correspondent for the newspaper “For the Glory of Motherland”. It is he who owns the epitaph on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin wall: “Your name is unknown, your deed is immortal.”
The opening ceremony was attended by the heads of military departments, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, an honorary member of the State Security Service and the hero of Shilov’s painting, Ivan Evdotiev. It was difficult to get him into a chair. He went to the front in 1941, attributing his age to himself. The veteran in his speech said that the Victory must not be forgotten, recalled opponents who did not calm down, built tricks in April 1945, mentioned Churchill’s plan to attack the Soviet Union, that the very next day after Stalin’s death, the enemies decided to take advantage of this as a means of psychological influence to weaken the Soviet Union.
On October 6, Alexander Shilov will turn 85 years old. The participants decided to appeal to the leadership of Moscow so that the date was celebrated at the proper level, and the current exhibition was proposed to be “increased until the end of the Arbat”. Shilov recently painted another portrait of a counterintelligence officer and will continue his work. “It was impossible without these services during the war. This is the purgatory of the army,” the artist believes. The very next day after the street vernissage, he will go to Vishnevsky’s hospital, where he will open another exhibition.
Newspaper headline:
Artist Shilov went to the Arbat
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