Belarus: persons and events (Kashkurevich Arlen)
Arlen Kashkurevich was born on September 15, 1929 in Minsk. In 1959 he graduated from the Belarusian Theater and Arts Institute, where he also taught some disciplines. As a student he worked with the State Publishing House of the BSSR. The most important stage for the artist's career was designing a book written by Y. Kupala В«Three PoemsВ» (1962), which was awarded with the II place diploma of the All-Union competition В«50 Best Books of the YearВ» in Moscow (1963). A. Kashkurevich has prepared several designs for the books of the abovementioned Belarusian author. These were illustrations for the small-format publication В«KurganВ» (1967), executed in watercolor and ink, a series of lithographs based on Kupala's poems В«BandarounaВ», В«Lion's GraveВ».
A. Kashkurevich did a lot in the design of world classical literature. For example, the cycle of illustrations to I. Goethe's tragedy «Faust» (1976) was awarded the highest award of the republican competition – the F. Skaryna diploma, and the I place diploma of the All-Union Art Book Competition. After illustrating «Faust», A. Kashkurevich created a series of graphic sheets (lithography, etching, aquatint) entitled «Confessions from Faust». A. Kashkurevich made illustrations for the books «Heart on the Palm» by I. Shamyakin (1964), «The Song of the Bison» by M. Husovsky (1973), «Spikes under Your Sickle» (1968) and «The Wild Hunt of King Stakh» (1983) by U. Karatkevich, «Francisk Skarina, or the Young Sun» by A. Loika (1990), «Eugene Onegin» by A. Pushkin (1999), «Ship of Despair» by U. Karatkevich (2003) and others.
He extensively covered the theme of the Great Patriotic War. Participated in the finishing of publications dedicated to military events. The artist created a layout for the book of literary and documentary records of A. Adamovich, J. Bryl, U. Kolesnik В«I am from the village of fire...В». A. Kashkurevich used photographic material as visual aids and thus emphasized the documentary basis of the described events. Another edition of A. Adamovych's В«Hatyn StoryВ» with illustrations by A. Kashkurevich was published in 1987. The artist designed it in pen and ink technique.
Work on books led A. Kashkurevich to create large easel series. Among them are the well-known cycles В«KupaliyanaВ» (based on the works of Y. Kupala, 1971), В«PartizansВ» (1969-1970) (both were awarded with the State Prize of Belarus, 1972).
A. Kashkurevich was the first in post-war Belarusian art to start working on biblical topics, the appeal to which has a deep life motivation (В«Gospel according to LukeВ», В«ApocalypseВ», 1990), in the series of paintings В«Holy lands of BelarusВ» (1993), in the world-famous work, one of the parts of the Bible, В«The Song of SolomonВ» (1995).
Today, the best works of Arlen Kashkurevich are available to the Belarusian and foreign viewers. Maturity of talent, refined professionalism, principled civil position – these are the main characteristics of the work of this artist.
Based on the NLB materials
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Photo: NCIP
