Last year marks the 90th birthday of Vadim Sidur, a famous Soviet nonconformist sculptor and artist. He was born in Ukraine, but Vadim worked in Russia. His sculptures were installed in Germany. And in the Russian capital there is the only Vadim Sidur museum in the country (this is the building in which his workshop was previously located). It presents the works of this master, in stark contrast to the canons that existed in the era of socialist realism.
Who is Vadim Siddur?
Vadim Abramovich Sidur is not only a sculptor, graphic artist and painter. He is also a philosopher, prose writer and poet. Vadim Abramovich Sidur spent only several months in the war, but he said to himself that his life experience consists of 80% of the military.
In the village of Latovka, which is located in the valley of the river. Ingulets, in 1944 there were fierce battles. Vadim Sidur was here. When he reached his hometown as an 18-year-old junior lieutenant, he already saw that there was nothing left of the house in which he was born and raised. He was nearly killed in the war. However, Sidur was given a second life. At the age of 19, Vadim became a disabled person of group II. He received several military medals, which, however, was of little consolation.
Vadim loved to sculpt and draw since childhood. He dreamed, however, about the career of a doctor. Vadim Abramovich studied for a year at the Dushanbe Medical Institute, but soon realized that he could never dull his compassion for human pain. At the age of 21, he arrived for another operation in Moscow and entered the Stroganov School at the faculty of monumental sculpture. Most of the sculptor’s creations are naked and seemingly defenseless against pain, misfortune, and the surrounding world.
Foundation of the LeSS group
With a short period of the Khrushchev thaw coincided Vadim's participation in exhibitions of the "new wave". Together with Nikolai Silis and Vladimir Lemport, he founded the LeSS group. She received lucrative orders. For example, the Warsaw Palace of Science and Culture entrusted her with the sculptural design. Vadim Sidur was admitted to the Union of Artists. He was given a workshop. Vadim Abramovich in 1961, after the first heart attack, miraculously survived. In 1962, the defeat of the then-famous exhibition at the Manege was carried out.
Vadim Sidur did not pursue the ranks, worked in isolation, never adjoined any groups other than the one indicated above. He even had almost no exhibitions at home. The Soviet authorities did not recognize Siddur, who was in a rogue position. In 1986, Vadim died.
Museum opening
3 years after his death, in 1989, the Vadim Sidur Museum was opened in Moscow. In 2011, he became part of the Manege, a museum and exhibition association. A year after this, the museum of Vadim Sidur was officially closed for repairs. However, the work did not begin - his further fate was unknown. After some time, the overhaul was decided to be postponed and cosmetic makeup done as soon as possible, after which the exposition will be opened on the anniversary of the master.
The permanent exhibition was called "In search of man." In the work of the sculptor, one of the main topics was the borderline state of people between life and death.
Portrait of Albert Einstein
Arriving at the Vadim Sidur Museum, you will see many interesting works, but this is worth mentioning separately. Vadim Abramovich in the 1970s created one of his most famous creations - a portrait of Albert Einstein. He is two-faced: on the one hand we see the majestic face of the creator, and on the other - this same face, however distorted by horror from the understanding of what was done to him. The fact is that in August 1939, Albert Einstein, along with his colleagues sent a letter to Roosevelt about the need to intensify activities related to the creation of the atomic bomb and the provision of US uranium. This marked the beginning of the atomic project.
In the mid-80s, Siddur’s workshop was visited by physicists from the laboratory where Einstein worked in recent years. Seeing this portrait, they were amazed at how to convey such a modern plastic language amazing portrait resemblance and complete lifelike. Siddur at the request of scientists from America made a plaster copy of this portrait. He presented it to the USSR Academy of Sciences, which passed it on to the Americans. The sculpture was cast in bronze and installed in America.
Portrait of V. L. Ginzburg
The museum also presents other portraits, no less remarkable. One of them is Ginzburg Vitaliy Lazarevich, a Nobel laureate and a friend of the sculptor. Nearby is a joint photograph of Ginzburg, Vadim Sidur and a portrait of Vitaly Lazarevich.
Screaming sculptures
In one of the articles devoted to Sidur, it was said that his work was refused to be installed in the Victory Park in the city of Moscow, since the capital supposedly does not need sculptures that “shout”. However, Vadim Sidur could not have done otherwise. His sculptures reflected what was on his soul and asked for outward. The terrible impressions after the war, which gives rise to countless sacrifices and endless disasters, did not allow the master to wave away, stop sharing his thoughts with the world about the fate of all mankind. He could not help but warn us of possible global disasters. That is why we see in some works the fragility and beauty of the world around us, while in others it is shown in contrast that which can result from a soulless attitude of people to nature and violence. Vadim Sidur simply could not keep silent about this. His sculptures, due to an irreconcilable social position, were not very popular during the life of the author. Today, fortunately, the situation has changed.
Coffin art
Siddur can be called an artist-prophet. His mission is to reach out to each of us, to warn that new wars, global disasters and natural disasters are coming. For this purpose, he uses any material. In his basement during the period of stagnation, he creates coffin art. These are compositions made from parts of car engines, sewer pipes and other wastes of human civilization.
These works are a warning to the living that their soulless attitude to the world will lead to the fact that coffin art will triumph. The Iron Prophets shout about it, who stretch up their metal stumps, the remains of human bodies in the work "Field of Experiments". Coffin art is considered the pinnacle of the work of Vadim Sidur. These are not just objects made from trash that has been stored for many years in Siddur's workshop. This is a whole philosophy, the main thesis of which is that everyone could not be born, but everyone should die. This is a frank, metaphorical, angry art. Siddur, playing with the form, seeks to show the very essence of man as authentically as possible.
Siddur Drawings
The artist Vadim Sidur created many interesting works. In his works - cry, pain, pity, warning, but also love, tenderness, compassion. We find these feelings in the master’s illustrations to the novels by I. Meras about Jews living in the Lithuanian ghetto. The same feelings are seen in the set of his engravings, watercolors, drawings. Here, as in sculptures, eternal, biblical themes vary. Both women in the image of the master and men are beautiful. Many of the works created by the artist Vadim Siddur are erotic. Vadim Abramovich covered the standard wall cabinets that stood in his Moscow apartment with colorful magic painting. Before us are the beautiful naked Adam and Eve. They bliss among greenery, flowers, birds, fish and animals. The Siddur Museum often exhibits a portion of this painting. The exhibition was called "Paradise Life in the Corridor." The biblical theme in the works of Siddur acquired a universal, and not just a national sound.
The fate of the workshop after the death of Siddur
But all these works could be expected after the death of the master a sad fate. The fact is that the artist rented a basement workshop from MOSH. What would happen to hundreds of heavy and voluminous works of art, how would they have been preserved if the rental period had not been extended? Siddur thought about this until the last days. Already in the hospital, he wrote poems full of anxiety:
"What will be mine with the children
When I will disappear."
Of course, we were talking about sculptures. After death, the heirs had to fight to preserve the workshop. The struggle was successful after the article by V. L. Ginzburg, "Sculptures We Don't See, " appeared in 1987. Its author is a close friend of Vadim. Today the museum has become one of the most prominent cultural centers of Moscow. Thousands of people came here who left excited notes in the review book. The exposition of Vadim's works is constantly being updated today: museum exhibits would not fit in it all at the same time.
Museum today
The Vadim Sidur Museum is a place where different periods of his work are represented: from realistic plasticity, characteristic of the mid-50s, to avant-garde coffin art and the aforementioned Iron Prophets, which allocated a hall.
After the reconstruction, the Moscow State Museum of Vadim Sidur also acquired a lecture hall / cinema. Lectures and documentaries are shown here. The museum also has a piano zone. It is intended for poetry evenings and chamber concerts. The museum today is a modern place. Here you will find interesting works of the master, and a comfortable environment, and many educational programs.
The former workshop of such an interesting sculptor as Vadim Sidur, the museum, has the following address: Moscow, Almaz Technical Center, ul. Novogireevskaya, d.37a.
