I was shocked by the fate of this wonderful man.
Isaac Itkind was in the 1930s as famous as Chagall and Malevich.. his sculptures are in museums in France, West Germany, the United States and... in the warehouses of the Russian Museum in Leningrad and the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Majakovsky, Sergey Yesenin, Vsevolod Meierhold, Vasily Kachalov, he was cared for by the pillars of the Soviet power - the narcoman of education Anatoly Lunacharsky and the first secretary of the Leningrad Committee of the party Sergey Kirov. And the exhibitions of his sculptures were an event in the cultural life of pre-war Russia.
He was born on April 9, 1871 in the Hassid town of Smorgon of the province of Vilnius. His father Jacob was a Hassid Rabbi. Isaac had to follow in his father’s footsteps. But.. the boy showed the talent to glue figures from clay. He could quietly observe his neighbors, and his hands at this time were gluing themselves. He was an absolute selfish. But he glued the people from the clay, and this was forbidden by their religion, so the Hassis ignored him and considered him a goy who lost God. One day, a local writer from Vilnius came to their house, quietly looked at his figures and left. A few days later, an article appeared in the newspaper, Where it was written that in Smorgoni lives a self-made man who creates masterpieces. And the same Hashis, who sprinkled the straw at the house of the Itkinds, sent a chosen man to the town. The selected went from house to house, showed illiterate craftsmen a newspaper with an article about Itkind and collected money so that "this slammy Isaac" could go to study "for the real sculptor".
I’m not going to tell you all of his biography. If you are interested, click, Google will tell you everything. I will only say that in those times Jews were forbidden to live in large cities, especially in the capital, even teachers of the Moscow School of Art of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, admired by the talent of the young sculptor were not able to break through for him the opportunity to live and study in the capital. And only the fame spread across Moscow, thanks to the participation of Maxim Gorky, allowed him to survive, and later become accepted in the Union of Artists. Savva Morozov bought his works. Theodore Roosevelt's brother persuaded him to move to America and promised a safe life.
In 1937, Russia celebrated the 100th anniversary of the death of Alexander Pushkin, murdered in a duel. The Hermitage has announced a contest for the best sculpture of Pushkin. Hundreds of works were presented at the exhibition. The first prize was awarded to three sculptures of Itkind – “Young Pushkin”, “Alexander Pushkin” – a poet in the last years of his life and “Dying Pushkin”. A simple and phenomenal work: the head of a dying poet on a pillow. This work cannot be translated in words! You see the face of a person who is already calmed by death - eyes closed, deadly straightened wrinkles on the forehead, and only the corners of the lips are still tormented by terrible pain...
In the same 37th Isaac Itkind was arrested for 58 articles. He was accused of spying for Japan and selling secrets from the Baltic fleet. Oh how!! And he died... He died for everyone. The sculpture “Young Pushkin” still has the dates of his life from 1871 to 1938.
In 1944, rumors began to circulate around Alma-Ata about some half-wild old man — not the dwarf, not the wizard — who lives on the outskirts of the city, in the land, feeds on roots, collects forest pines and makes amazing figures from these pines. Children, who in this wartime unattendedly wandered through the deserts and suburbs of the city, told that these wooden figures are really crying and really laughing... Rumors spread across the city and the leaders of the Kazakh Art Foundation decided to look at these “living figures of pines”. Several famous Kazakh artists, including the artist Nikolai Mukhin, went to the outskirts of Alma-Ata, to the Main Arik. After a long search, they found an earthquake in a clay hill. They approached the lawn leading into the depths of the earth. From there there was a slight knock of the hammer on the cut. Someone of the artists bended, shouted in the hole: “Hey!”
A small, gray, 73-year-old old man came out of the earthquake. He heard badly and spoke horribly illiterate Russian – he had a monstrous Jewish accent. But when he named his names to the artists, they trembled. Itkind, whose name became chrestomatic for them in their student years, lived in some crotovya cave, starved, ate roots and food and... created sculptures.
Why is? How did you get here? Ask the artists.
“I was arrested in the 37th year and deported first to Siberia, then here, to Kazakhstan. Now I was released from the camp because I was too old for them. He was released without the right to return to Moscow. They said they gave me a lifetime referral.
Why were you arrested?
Because I am the enemy of the people, a Japanese spy. "I sold the secrets of the Baltic Navy to Japan," answered Itkind, and asked with an untold Jewish intonation: "Can you believe it?
One Mukhin dared to enter his cave and pull out the still unfinished work "Laughing Old Man". The old man was taken to the local museum. And the old man lived in this earthquake for another 12 years!! 12 years ago!!! I am hungry and hungry!!! He was the enemy of the people and no one dared to help him!!! And only Mukhin occasionally visited him and threw a little money. 12 years ago!!! to
In 1956, at the threshold of the Alma-Atina State Theatre, a gnomic-like little old man aged 85 appeared and asked the director of the Alma-Atina Theatre to take him to work to draw decorations and paint his ass. He said that now that he was removed from the title of "enemy of the people" and the prohibition to live in large cities, he still will not go to Moscow or Leningrad - not to anyone. With a salary of 60 r. and housing provided. Dali topchan under the theatrical staircase... During the next two years he climbed the theatrical streets, painted his ass and decorations. And at night he went down to the basement and took up his real job.. bought from drivers for a bottle of vodka old pni and corks and created!!! to
And only two years later the new young artist of the theater looked into the basement and stumbled: there were two dozen unique wooden sculptures, made by a great, if not a great master. The artist asked the old man how his surname was, and remembered he had heard this surname at the art institute at lectures on the history of Soviet fine art. of course! This was the famous three tree sculptors in the 1930s - Konenkov, Erzya and Itkind. Konenkov was alive, he became an academic, Erzia died, and Itkind...
So in Kazakhstan "again" found Isaac Itkind.
Later he was again accepted into the Union of Artists and even allocated a two-bedroom apartment. His sculptures began to be purchased by both individuals and museums. At the age of 87 he was once again celebrated. The truth of local, Kazakh scale... He created for the rest of his life.
He died in Alma-Ata on February 14, 1969, aged 98.
From the interview: Do you know why I survived in jail? They arrested me, put me in the Petropavlovsk fortress, in the basement, alone, and for eight months the KGB investigator beat me every day, even knocked out my drum in my left ear. Everyone required me to write that I was a Japanese spy and what secrets of the Baltic Fleet I sold to Japan. I couldn’t write it because I couldn’t write in Russian. And then they beat me again, and again...You know how I survived? I survived because I had a very good profession. They gave me one piece of black bread a day. In the morning, a piece of bread was given for the whole day. But I didn’t eat that bread until night. I’ve been spending the whole day on this bread. Last night before I went to bed I ate this bread. The next day, they beat me again, but they gave me bread, so I could keep the rest of the day and not think of them.