Recently I joined the group tour to the oldest Applied arts academy in Russia, which is located in northwest Moscow near our flat.
"Stroganov Moscow Design and Applied Arts State Academy", it was originally founded in 1825 by Count Sergey Stroganov(1794-1882) – a member of a noble Russian family due to demands of national culture and social economic development. For the first time, the academy was specializing in drawing for arts and crafts, later it was reorganized and renamed several times, and in 1945 was reopened as a higher art educational institution. In its history, famous Russian artists such as
M. Vrubel, V. Kandinsky, A. Rodchenko contributed a lot to a unique tuition system.
ちょっと珍しい見学ツアーで、ロシアで最も歴史のある応用美術学院を訪れました。モスクワ市北西部
「Stroganov Moscow Design and Applied Arts State Academy」です。我が家から遠くないので、以前から通りがかっては気になっていた建物です。ロシア貴族ストロガノフ家のセルゲイ・ストロガノフ氏（1794-1882）が、1825年に国内の文化振興の一環として設立しました。工芸美術に特化したデッサン学校としてスタートしたのち、組織変更や名称変更をくり返し、1945年に美術高等教育機関として体制が整えられました。その歴史上、かの有名なロシア人芸術家カンディンスキー、ロドチェンコ、
ヴルーべリも教鞭をとったといいます。
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| Stroganov Moscow Design and Applied Arts State Academy, founded in 1825 |
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| The founder Sergey Stroganov |
Today Stroganov Academy has 3faculty( Design, Monumental and Decorative Applied Arts, restoration) and 17departments (interior, furniture,textile, transport, industrial, environmental, graphic, metal, ceramic glass, restoration, and so on). It was relocated to its present site in 1945, school building already got aging and needs to be fixed everywhere. However those old things like trembling lifts or faded walls rather inspire students' creation. We walked though the labyrinth-like corridors that were occupied with students' works. Talented young artists concentrated on their works even in chilly corridors.
現在はデザイン、応用美術、修復の3学部と、17の専門学科（インテリア、家具、テキスタイル、乗り物、工業、環境、グラフィック、美術史、モニュメント彫像、金属、セラミック、ガラス、修復、etc)に分かれます。旧校舎は1945年設立、カタカタと震えながら動くエレベーターはもはやアンティーク。所々剥げ落ちた内装は、生徒の創造欲をいっそうかき立てるようです。迷路のような校内に生徒の作品がところ狭しと置かれ、5月にしては寒い冷え切った廊下で、彼らは一心に作品づくりに取り組んでいました。
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| Academic Sculpture department |
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| Aged lifts paintd by students |
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| Stairs painted by students |
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Wall painting copies
Hermitage Raphael loggias. |
The most Russianlike and the most delicate work would be the restoration of icons. Icons are made of several layers of paintings. The first couple of layers are invisible, so that conservator find them out by X-ray photos. The workroom is filled with chemical smells, because they clean away dust on surface by professional chemical liquid, and paint it again by special pigments. It is no doubt that this work takes for ages.
最もロシアらしく、最も繊細な仕事はイコンの修復でしょう。イコン画は幾層にも重なるレイヤーで描かれており、下の層はレントゲンで確認しながら再現するそうです。作業室に入ると薬品の匂いが充満していました。特殊な薬液で表面の汚れを落とし、特殊な顔料で細かく色づけする気が遠くなるような作業です。
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| Icon restoration department |
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| Repaint works for old icons |
The academy opens the museum and expositions for visitors. This Russian oldest applied arts museum was founded in 1864, maily the collection of foreign arts and crafts. Studens come here to draw masterpieces or hold work shops at the table.
校内の美術館や展示会は、学外の訪問者を受け入れてくれます。
1864年設立の美術館は、主に国外工芸品を集めたロシア最古の応用美術博物館。生徒たちは展示されている工芸品を見ながら、テーブルでデッサンしたりワークショップを開くそうです。
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| Russian oldest applied arts museum in school. |
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| The work place for students |
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| Plates designed by V. Kandinsky who contributed the tuition system |
Currently a unique exhibition has just started "Trasformation of Submarine", it shows the excellent presentations among international competitions. The theme is how to reuse the giant submarine which was made in Soviet era. It seems such unreal projects, but actually 3 soviet submarineｓ exsit somewere in Russia and some years ago the goverment announced that they would be reused for something. Unfortunatelly this plan has been freezed because of shortage of money, thus it is quite interesting project in terms of social impacts and lot of young designers took part in it.
ちょうど今、ユニークな展示会も行われています。「Trasformation of Submarine」、ソビエト時代の巨大な潜水艦の再利用法を提案するプレゼンテーションです。会場には優秀作品が展示されていました。夢物語のようですが、実際ロシアには３隻の潜水艦が存在し、政府は過去にそのうち２隻を再利用することを示唆したそうです。今のところ資金不足で実現されていないために、このような社会プロジェクトが生まれ、多くの若手デザイナーが参加している点は興味深いです。
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| Exhibition in Shool, "Trasformation of Submarine" |
To enter this academy is not that easy, the school stuff said that the exam preparation takes at least 2 years. Basically school fee is free except foreign students. All students in any specialization has to learn drawing for a long term, after then they learn particular techniques. This method seems even old-fashioned, but I think this is how Russian's artistic soul is.
It was such a nice day tour, I was inspired a lot by students who were making all efforts on their creative work.
Academyへの入学は難しく、試験準備に２年はかかるとのこと。ただし入学できれば学費は無料です。例えどのような学科でも、基本のデッサン修行に最も長い時間が充てられるといいます。ロシアらしい昔ながらの芸術魂を感じます。キャンバスを前にした、生徒さん達のひたむきな姿に刺激を受けた一日でした。
Stroganov Moscow Design and Applied Arts State Academy
http://mghpu.ru/
