Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Some light tanning due to age. Year 1977. Hardcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> These sculptures reflect the world he saw and felt in all its variety and contradictions a world transformed by the magic of his touch. He was attracted alike by the philosophical problems of being and the hard facts of reality. But there was one theme he was unswervingly loyal to. a theme which gave shape and substance to all the rest man the majesty in him and the beauty and the pure and tender images of women and children. Through his art Konionkov called for the liberation of man. with justice peace dig-nity and goodwill for all. He was not just an artist but a thinker as well whose numerous sculptural works writings and utterances produced a definite impact on society. He continued to work to the end of his days and to the very last the creative urge never deserted him. Konionkov’s life is similar to that of many Russian men of science or the arts. He was born in 1874 into a peasant family in the remote backwoods village of Karakovichi (Smolensk province). Strong in spirit were the people who lived here unafraid of work undaunted by adversity ever cherishing the poetry of the byliny and the lilting melody of the Russian song. This was the milieu that nurtured the future artist. Many years later Konionkov recollected that he grew up among tillers of the soil lumberjacks raftsmen and masons and that he himself never parted with the pick or the shovel. No wonder then that the working man the toiler be-came the prime subject of his ?uvre. As a child he used to carve bird and animal figures out of chunks of wood. His family. though of peasant stock soon recognized the boy’s gift and helped him to get some (OS)