The Return

Mikhail Kugach was part of a well-known dynasty of Moscow artists – Yury Kugach and Olga Svetlichnaya. Growing up in the renowned ‘artists’ town’ on Maslovka, Mikhail Kugach absorbed that place’s unique atmosphere, and had the opportunity to interact with the older generation of established artists, including: Nikolai Krymov, Arkady Plastov, Fyodor Reshetnikov, and many others. The artist recalls how in the evenings, when guests came over, he – still just a young boy back then – would delight in listening to their discussions about the direction that the country’s art should take, and about global trends in art. Gradually – he started to explore his creative talents. In 1962, Mikhail Kugach graduated from the Surikov Art Institute (having studied under Pyotr Pokarzhevsky). From then on Kugach’s most important inspiration came from Vyshny Volochyok, near the Repin Akademicheskaya Dacha. It was this place that the Moscow artist referred to as his native land.
The painting, “The Return”, is highly connected with this place. This work is on the theme of a soldier returning from the front. The hero of this ‘artistic narrative’ was a soldier from the village of Vyshny Volochyok, who Mikhail Kugach remembered from his childhood, seeing return from the front. ‘I witnessed this kind of return,’ Kugach recalled. ‘I felt a profound sense of gratitude and admiration for the humble and unique fate these people faced. This feeling seeped deep into my consciousness, that after all this time, looking back at these feelings and experiences, I felt it was my duty to tell this story.’

Paintings featured in this exhibition::

"Victory! 1945-2015" - The National Art Museum of China - Beijing, China (26.08.2015 - 23.01.2016).