NEWS
ARTISTIC WORLD OF YEVGENY MIKHELSON: ON OCCASION OF THE JUBILEE OF MAESTRO OF TURKMEN ANIMATED CARTOON
Yevgeny Ivanovich Mikhelson celebrates the 80th anniversary. The date is impressive. In my opinion, it has no relevance to the character of artist-director Yevgeny Mikhelson, who created more than thirty animated films for children. Yevgeny Ivanovich, being in the world of fairy tales for most of his creative life, is still penetrated with their essence, where, along with folk wisdom, children's immediacy in the perception of the world lives.
“Every child is a person with absolute purity. Children have their own imaginative thinking, where everything is animated, they have their own sign language. We have to speak with the children in their language”, says Yevgeny Mikhelson.
I grew up on the cartoons created by Mikhelson, who during my childhood has been already known as “the father of Turkmen animation”. My favorite heroes are homeless puppy Kongurja, looking for a friend, foal Ognik, taking the first steps in life, fearless Yartigulak - a tiny brave boy, unflappable Hudayberdy, who can resolve any difficult situation, winged Donkey, ready to support anyone in need - the native sunny world of friendship, hard work, hospitality, justice and the obligatory victory of good over evil ...
My mother remembers well when they watched the first animated film in Turkmenistan. It was "A Guest Is Above the Father" and it was in 1970, half a century ago.
Yevgeny Mikhelson began working at the Ashgabat TV studio as a decorator, but soon he became a decorator in production TV programmes, and then he started producing concert films as an artist and a director.
Yevgeny Mikhelson was full of ideas and creative plans. He was interested in Turkmen wooden souvenirs produced in the workshops of the art fund. They were turned on a lathe, finely painted by master painters and were very popular as souvenirs of Turkmenistan. What if one replenishes the souvenirs with new characters and makes a cartoon with them with all the effects of movement, sound, editing and good humor?
This idea captured the desperate enthusiast in the animation genre, who has neither professional experience, nor skills in such work. Mikhelson presented the drawings to the artistic expert board and won. The idea was approved. The author of the experimental film was screenwriter Lora Stepanskaya - the wife of the new animator. The idea of a new cartoon was a festive event in a village - the arrival of a famous Bagshi. For the new cartoon, no text was needed, just the sounds of the dutar that could animate the wooden characters. What was needed was “non-invented”, “folk” music by Nury Halmamedov from the film “Shukur-bagshi”.
The result exceeded expectations. The cartoon “A Guest is Above the Father”, created on Turkmen television over and above the plan, was accepted by the Central Television, it was included in the Intervision Programme, was demonstrated in the country, in Czechoslovakia, in Bulgaria, however, then the only copy was lost. The first step in the Turkmen animated film was made, the creative partnership of Michelson and Halmamedov was established.
Until the last days of his life, Nury composed music for cartoons. Mikhelson and Halmamedov created eight joint works, the director says that he keeps in memory every record of Nury with the orchestra, that it was always moments of happiness.
... Yevgeny Mikhelson was born in Petropavlovsk, Northern Kazakhstan on May 31, 1940, where his father was cast into exile. A stele with the names of victims of Stalinist repressions were erected in the city. I saw a photo of the stele in the Mikhelson’s family archive. The surname of his father is embossed on the stele, but no one knows where his grave is. Yevgeny Mikhelson’s mother passed away soon, being a very young woman, her heart could not stand it ...
It is especially precious that with all the dramatic fate of Yevgeny Mikhelson, the terrible burden of injustice and loss did not embitter his soul.
Saturated with creative discoveries, the years spent at the Secondary School of Art at I.Repin Institute in St. Petersburg, and in Ashgabat, gave him close friends, his beloved profession and creative energy of life, forever determined the bright motives in the work of Yevgeny Mikhelson, the true kindness of his nature ...
I learned a lot about the Mikhelson’s family from Gulsoltan Halmamedova, the widow of the great composer, she left us last year ... When I began working on the project of Nury Halmamedov International Festival in Moscow, I was sincerely happy with Gulsoltan Klychevna’s offer to introduce me with Lora Grigoryevna and Yevgeny Ivanovich. How pleasant it was that they not only approved the idea, but also supported it.
Mikhelson’s painting “Dutar - Treble Clef” became the emblem of the festival. It was Lora Grigoryevna who suggested to include the name of the iconic piano play by Nury Halmamedov “Sounds of the Dutar” into the name of the festival. They became the members of the Organizing Committee and continue supporting the further development of scientific and artistic programmes of the international forum.
Yevgeny Ivanovich is very productive. He claims to live because he works. Exhibitions of his new landscapes, still-life paintings in museums of the Moscow Region, in the Moscow House of Nationalities invariably receive grateful feedback from visitors, they are pleased with the atmosphere of sunlight, the quiet natural beauty of autumn nature, bright juicy placers of fruit, thick of poppies, white-trunked birch trees directed to the sky, juicy slices Turkmen melons, a lone trunk of saxaul, breaking through the thickness of sand, the shine of pomegranate seeds, the limpidity of grapes - the great generosity of life around us ...
Russia and Turkmenistan, Turkmenistan and Russia live in his heart with unfailing love ... I know that the work on creating the gallery of portraits of masters of Turkmen cinematography continues. Lora Grigoryevna for herself determined the essence of the work with Magtymguly’s words: “What fates look in our faces” ... Baba Annanov, Artyk Djalliyev, Nury Halmamedov, Ata Dovletov, Hodjom Ovezgelenov, Sary Karriyev, Alexander Chernov, Yakub Muratnazarov ... They look at us. Eternal. I really want new and new portraits to appear ...
The Mikhelson’s Home is open. As their peers say it was always open according to the law: a guest is above a father. The owners of this house will always feed, listen to, help, calm down a guest without any extra questions. Mikhelson can not refuse friends - he presents his work. Today, his works are included into private collections not only in Turkmenistan and in Russia, but also in the USA, Canada, Israel, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Germany ...
The unique union of two Honoured Workers of Arts of Turkmenistan will celebrate its 60th anniversary. Hundreds of joint and personal creative works on Turkmen TV, the Turkmenfilm Studio, the Ashgabat Pushkin Theater ... Certificates of Honour, medals, diplomas, prizes ...
The main offspring is the only son – Anton and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Gifted, beautiful people.
Yevgeny Ivanovich, Lora Grigoryevna!
Please live. We are grateful to you. We need you.