April, Aaron Isaakovich

Aaron April was born in Lithuania in the area of Vilkaviskis . He spent his childhood at the Šiaudinskiai estate three kilometers from the town of Verzhblovo (Kibarty, modern name - Kibartai ), where I. I. Levitan was born. A few days before the German attack on the Soviet Union, in June 1941 the April family was exiled to Siberia . The family spent the first year of exile in the Altai Territory , then - beyond the Arctic Circle in the villages of Kresty and Cossack on the Yana River in Yakutia . The future artist grew up in the Arctic ; decades later, impressions of the special nature and harsh life of the northern region for many years found expression in his art. In 1947 he graduated from high school with a gold medal in Yakutsk . In 1948, April managed to become a student at the Moscow Art College in memory of 1905 ^[1] . He studied there for only a year and a half, since on the eve of “ Cases of Doctors ” he was again exiled to Yakutsk , where he graduated from the Art School and at the same time, in absentia, four courses of the Faculty of History of the Pedagogical Institute. In 1953 he was released from exile. In 1954-1960 studied at the Moscow State Art Institute (MGHI) them. Surikov . After graduating from the Moscow Art Institute in 1961, he was admitted to the membership of the Moscow branch of the Union of Artists . In 1958-1972 regularly participated in many Moscow, republican, union and foreign exhibitions. Two of his solo exhibitions took place in Moscow : the first in 1963 in the editorial office of Yunost magazine , the second in 1970 in the House of Friendship of Peoples; entitled “Beyond the Seven Seas”, it included works based on materials and impressions of a sea voyage to India on a merchant ship. In 1972, he moved to Israel with his father, where he settled in Jerusalem , where he still lives.

The first exhibition of Aaron April in Israel took place in the Jerusalem Theater Gallery in December 1972. In Israel, April works a lot from nature, masters new rhythms and motifs, and insistently solves the problems of the struggle between light and color. In 1975-1976 headed the Jerusalem Artists and Sculptors Association. Until 1983, he taught painting, drawing and composition (alternately) at the University of Haifa , at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and at the Bezalel Academy of Arts in Jerusalem. In the mid-1980s, he was the envoy of the Jewish Agency in Rome. In 1987, he joined the group of founders of the village of artists Sa-Nur in Northern Samaria , which he later headed in 1991-1999; over the years, 28 workshops were built there and an exhibition hall was created. After a number of solo exhibitions in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa , the USA , Canada , Germany , Switzerland , France and other countries have repeatedly exhibited, and in Russia in the 2000s. In 1986-1998 worked in Paris at the Cite Internationale des Arts for different years for a period of two months to a year. In 2001, he received the Ish Shalom Foundation Prize "For Special Merit in the Development of Art". In 2002, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art in the main building on Petrovka held his personal exhibition “30 Years Later”, in 2008 the State Tretyakov Gallery in the building on Krymsky Val held a large retrospective, in 2014 his personal exhibition “Unconscious Reality” "Organized the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (in a building on Gogolevsky Boulevard). Since 2005 - Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Arts .

The artistic style of Aaron April differs in a pronounced genesis from contemplative figurativeness to expressive symbolism . April's picturesque works impress with their colorful, temperamental riot of color, his fantastic game. However, in this color chaos, objectivity and even the programmatic nature of the works are visible. Critics noted that April belongs to those artists who know how to tame chaos, prompting viewers themselves to begin to formulate answers to the questions posed by the painting, to solve its secret, a secret that is the leading value. Out of seemingly random pulsating strokes, faces, figures, biblical characters suddenly arise. The color in April painting is given special significance, which is largely a result of the extensive experience in watercolor, which combined the subtlest transmission of nuances of color and southern nature and compositions affecting biblical and universal themes.

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  To the crying wall

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  Vagaries of memory

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  Where was the old city of David

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  Closely in heaven and on earth

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  On the outskirts of Jerusalem

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  Rhythms (Assembly)

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  Herodias

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  Lot with daughters

• Aharon April, with a preface by Jean Bollack (Paris: Galerie Rambert, 1995).
• “Aaron April,” with a preface by Matti Fisher (Moscow: MMSI, 2002).
• “Aaron April. Retrospective ”, with a foreword by Marina Genkina (Moscow: Scanrus, 2007).
• Aaron April and Galina Podolskaya, “To love is always classic” (Jerusalem, 2012).
• Galina Podolskaya and Aaron April, “The Age in the Drawings of a Contemporary” (Jerusalem, 2013).
• Aaron April "To a firm hand and honest color" Album book with memoirs (Jerusalem, Scopus, 2016)

• Unconscious Reality, 2014
• Creation, 2000
• Song of Songs, 2001
• “The reverse side of the canvas”, 2000 - posted on the artist’s personal website

• A.A. Deineka, "Young Art" // Izvestia, 09/14/1958.
• IN AND. Kostin, “Lifestyles ...” // Youth (Moscow), No. 10 (1963).
• Bibliographic Dictionary of Artists of the Peoples of the USSR, 1970, v. 1, p. 182.
• Amnon Barzel, “Aaron April” // Ha-Arez ["The Country"], January 5, 1973 [in Russian] Hebrew].
• Meir Ronen, “A master in transit” [ Jerusalem Post , July 25, 1975.
• Nitsa Flaxer, “The plot as an expression of emotion” // Davar [“Slovo”], August 1, 1975 [in Russian] Hebrew].
• Shella Drobkin, "From Russia to Israel with dreams" ["From Russia to Israel with Dreams"] // The Montreal Suburban, November 8, 1975
• Bob Garret, “An artist tells ...” [“An artist tells ...”] // Boston Glob, November 23, 1975
• Miriam Tal, “A Feast for the Eyes” // Ediot Aharonot ["Latest News"], May 4, 1979 [in Russian] Hebrew].
• David Gershtein, “Song of Songs in Two Forms” // Ediot Aharonot [“Latest News”], 1983 [in Russian] Hebrew].
• Georg Mordel, “Artist A.I. April” // Circle (Tel Aviv), July 13, 1983
• Lazar Dranker, “Judges and Fates” // Circle (Tel Aviv), April 13, 1988
• Jacques Picard, “Fliehendes Licht und zitternde Luft” // Kulturspiegel (Berne), September 11, 1986 [in German].
• Margarita Baginova, “Painting on the Diamond Principle” // Russian Thought (Paris), September 30, 1988
• Aaron April, “More on Bible Stones. Notes of the artist ”// Ariel (Jerusalem), No. 2 (1990).
• S. Kashnitsky, “Sa-Nur without exotics” // Time (Tel Aviv), March 25, 1994
• Victor Lupan, “La colonie des artiste” // Figaro magazine (Paris), February 12, 1998
• Galina Podolskaya, “The Kingdom of Color: Aaron April” // Patron and Peace (Moscow), No. 45 (2010).
• Mikhail Yudson, “Classics of Love” // Vesti (Jerusalem), June 8, 2002
• Galina Podolskaya, “In the Daylight” // Vesti (Jerusalem) June 15, 2002
• Noah Lea Cohen “April Rain” // Nowhere [“Point”], No. 305 (October 2007) [in Russian] Hebrew].
• Evgraf Konchin, “Competition with the Light” // Culture (Moscow), June 26, 2008
• Dmitry Zhilinsky, “Ascent. Monologue about Aaron April ”// Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), No. 2/19 (2008).

• Artist's site
• Dmitry Zhilinsky. Climbing Monologue about Aaron April // Tretyakov Gallery Magazine , # 2 2008 (19)