Bearish merit: the exhibition of the artist Viktor Chizhikov has opened

The branch of the Literary Museum in the House of I.S. Ostroukhov in Trubniki presents the iconic works of one of the best Russian illustrators. The exhibition "The art of seeing a fairy tale. Viktor Chizhikov's Lessons" were timed to coincide with his 90th birthday. There are several hundred drawings on display, familiar to everyone since childhood. The heroes of the children's books "In the land of Unlearned lessons", "The Tale of Lost Time", "The Wizard of Oz", "Doctor Aibolit", "Cipollino" appeared thanks to this artist, he was published in "Murzilka" and "Funny Pictures". Izvestia visited the exhibition and returned to childhood.

Favorite children's books

At the opening of Viktor Chizhikov's exhibition, there was nowhere to see an apple. The guests were greeted by illustrations familiar from books. And what books they were from, the inscriptions in large letters on the wall suggested to those who had forgotten. There were more children than adults. And they all immediately found something to do. Someone took a task at the counter and went through the halls to solve the quest. Someone was playing board games. But most of the guys were sitting at tables and doing spelling. It was like being transported back to the last century. They picked up fountain pens, inkwells, and writing materials and diligently wrote out the letters. Just like the characters from the pages of the book about Vovka in the Faraway Kingdom, where the two-man counted one and a half diggers.

The exhibition is dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Chizhikov's birth. The exhibition features legendary illustrations by the master, as well as personal belongings, documents, and handwritten materials received by the State Museum of the History of Russian Literature as a gift from the artist's widow.

—Zinaida Sergeevna has donated more than 2,000 works by Viktor Alexandrovich to the museum, so we can safely say that we have a Chizhikov Museum in our funds," Dmitry Bak, director of the V.I. Dahl State Museum of Fine Arts, told Izvestia. — And if you were dreaming, such a museum would be very visited, because Viktor Chizhikov is an absolute classic of book graphics, a classic of illustrations for children's books. There is no one in Russia who, after looking at Chizhikov's watercolors or gouaches, would not remember: yes, yes, of course, I read Alexander Volkov, Gianni Rodari, Korney Chukovsky, Andrei Usachev, Irina Tokmakova with his illustrations. They are bright, recognizable, funny, and never serve as a simple mechanical addition to a book. It very rarely depicts literally what is described on the pages. Some kind of development is necessarily implied.

The exhibition presents cycles of illustrations to iconic works of children's literature: "Alya, Klyaksich and the letter A" by Irina Tokmakova, "In the Land of Unlearned Lessons" by Liya Geraskina, "The Tale of Lost Time" by Evgeny Schwartz, "The Wizard of Oz" by Alexander Volkov, "Doctor Aibolit" by Korney Chukovsky, "Cipollino" by Gianni Rodari.

— He was once invited to the program "Health" as a phenomenon: an artist and a colorblind person — how can this be? — Daria Kaverina, the chief curator of the State Museum of Fine Arts, shared with Izvestia. — He treated this feature with humor. Viktor Chizhikov could have worked as a cartoonist, but admitted that he did not like cartoons. The only time Harry Bardeen persuaded him to do an animation with him. And so the "Inspector Mamokin" appeared. Everything else that seems similar to Chizhikov's drawings on the screen may have been inspired or created by another artist under the impression of his work.

How the Olympic bear appeared

The master is also known as the creator of the Olympic teddy bear, the symbol of the Olympic Games—80. The exhibition presents sketches, variants of what the mascot could be. There's a bear in the form of a matryoshka doll, and a playful one in a cap and with a shoulder bag, and a schematic one in the form of a set of circles, and with a heart shape. Nevertheless, officials approved the image of an athlete bear, belted with a belt with a buckle in the form of Olympic rings.

And it all started with Nikolai Nikolaevich Drozdov. The TV presenter announced in his program "In the World of Animals" a contest for an animal symbol of the upcoming international sporting event. The mascot could be a squirrel, a stork, or a bison. But the audience voted for the brown bear.

But even the creator of the Olympic bear was not spared by the courts. In recent years, he has been proving his rights to the symbol he invented. Themis did not fully support the artist's demands.

"It turned out that the graphic image belongs to him, the three—dimensional version belongs to another author, and the balloon man at Luzhniki has his own author," Natalia Leonova, head of the exposition and exhibition service, told Izvestia. — The court denied the artist the authorship of the Olympic Games-80 mascot. He disputed the illegal use of one of the TV channels in a series of broadcasts. And the channel in court demanded proof from Chizhikov that he painted the bear.

The court considered that a drawing is one thing, but a thing created according to a sketch may have a different author. This teddy bear already has other characteristics, sizes and is considered an independent work of art.

According to Natalia Leonova, Chizhikov did not receive an elementary art education, did not study at an art school. But since childhood he has been drawing cats very well. Bears became the development of their images. He received his professional education at the Polygraphic Institute. He worked as a cartoonist for the newspaper Housing Worker. Then there were "Funny pictures", "Murzilka", "Crocodile".

The artist had a pseudonym Chizh. The exhibition features various plaques with the name of the feathered one. There is a plastic sign from the zoo, and an inscription on a metal plate "Chizh", imitating the name of the street. These funny plaques were given to the artist by friends. And leaving an autograph as a souvenir, Chizhikov sometimes drew a bird.

For Viktor Alexandrovich, meeting a new book was like meeting a new person, his relatives say. The master admitted that the heroes of the books created by him would stand up as a wall and protect them from harm. And the children feel it, they literally didn't want to leave the exhibition. Perhaps one of them will also become an artist — maybe by the next Russian Olympiad.