Mihail Chemiakin

(Russian, b. 1943)

“I have not changed my ideas, I have not compromised my principles. It is you who have had to change.”
— Chemiakin

Controversial Russian dissident artist Mihail Chemiakin has earned his art world recognition. The painter, poet, sculptor, stage designer, producer, musician, philosopher, and publisher notably co-created the philosophy of Metaphysical Synthesis. Chemiakin is a stimulating, multifaceted artist, utilizing an impressive array of colors, subjects, and artistic influences in beautifully bold ways. He draws inspiration from Cubism and Surrealism, or perhaps more specifically, Picasso, Leger, and Dali.

Chemiakin was born to a military family in 1943. His father, a Kabardian from the Caucasus Mountains, was Mikhail Petrovich Kardanov who had lost his parents and been adopted by a friend of his father's, White Army officer Piotr Chemiakin. His father, Mikhail, became a Soviet Army officer, receiving one of the first Orders of the Red Banner at the age of thirteen. Chemiakin's mother was an actress and poet, Yulia Nikolaevna Predtechenskaya, of Russian noble heritage. She met Mikhail in 1941 at the start of the Great Patriotic War and asked him to take her to the front line. She served in cavalry under the command of Lev Dovator and took part in battles alongside her husband.

The artist spent his early years in occupied East Germany where his father was serving. The family returned to the Soviet Union in 1957, and he studied at the secondary school of art affiliated with the Il’ya Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Leningrad, but was expelled from it in 1961 for "non-compliance with the socialist realism art world" and for the, "aesthetic corruption of fellow students." Socialist realism is a style of idealized but realistic art characterized by the glorified depiction of communist values, such as the emancipation of the proletariat, and was the predominant form of approved art in the Soviet Union for several decades. Between 1959 and 1971 Chemiakin did all kind of niche jobs, between which he took part in various art projects.

He worked for five years on the maintenance crew at the Hermitage Museum, and contributed to organizing the museum’s large 200th anniversary exhibition in 1964 with museum colleagues, only for the exhibition to close after a single day after public outcry. The director of the museum was fired, and all the participants forced to resign, but the fuss raised Chemiakin’s profile in the international art community. In 1967, he founded the group of artists called St. Petersburg, and he and philosopher Vladimir Ivanov co-created a treatise called Metaphysical Synthesism dedicated to new forms of icon painting based on the study of religious art of all epochs and nations.

Soviet authorities subjected him to mandatory psychiatric treatment for having ideals that did not conform to those of the Soviet Union and in 1971, exiled him from the Soviet Union. According to Chemiakin, the KGB officer involved actually saved him by offering him the chance to “quietly leave the country” with $50 in his pocket, when people from the Artists' Union of the USSR were insisting on his isolation.

Chemiakin settled in France where he published Apollon-77, an almanac of post-Stalinist art, poetry, and photography. He then moved to New York in 1981. In 1989, he started visiting now post-Communist Russia, working on street shows by Slava Polunin, ballets by the Mariinsky Theatre, a TV series by Russia-K and other government-backed projects. In 2007, he returned to France where he currently resides.

Chemiakin works in a broad range of media and subjects, including illustrating books for Mikhail Yupp. In 2001, the City of Moscow commissioned him to create a monument "Children Are the Victims of Adult Vices," a group of sculptures in a park behind the British Ambassador's residence. Other sculptures by Chemiakin include “Peter the Great” in St. Petersburg's Peter and Paul Fortress, “Peter the Great” in London, “Monument to Victims of Terrorism” in Vladikavkaz (North Ossetia), and “Vladimir Vysotsky” in Samara, Russia. He directed and designed an entirely new production of The Nutcracker for the Mariinsky Theater, where he also created a second ballet based on the same tale by Hoffman, "The Magic Nut". In 2010, the artist created a new production of "Coppelia" for the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater. He was also the artistic designer on the 2018 Russian animated feature film Hoffmaniada, and his body of work is recognized in multiple books dedicated to his art.

American Fine Art, Inc. is proud to feature the original works and limited editions of Chemiakin. Visit our 12,000 sq. ft. showroom in Scottsdale, Arizona or call today. Our website is offered only as a limited place to browse or refresh your memory and is not a reflection of our current inventory. To learn more about collecting, pricing, value or any other art information, please contact one of our International Art Consultants. We look forward to giving you the one on one attention you deserve when building your fine art collection.  We hope you find our website helpful and look forward to seeing you in Scottsdale soon.