"In dark, like darkness, darkness"

Over his 79 years, Evgeny Kostylev survived the war, visited Egypt, worked as a turner and a plumber, and was engaged in sambo. And then he became a self-taught artist, for years he was looking for his own “black square” and finally found: he came up with the personal style “Zhko”, in which he wrote more than 100 paintings-but some of them have never seen

“Listen, leaf through, just say that there is drawn there. Icon? This is a “burden”, everyone carries his own burden. "Trinity"? On it, a reactive plane means ascension. Evening? No, this is not an evening, it is called "both thoughts and things know in advance. "

Almost the entire space of the Mastern room occupies a large table. To the two -free walls of the sofa and cabinet, paintings are leaned, some in human height. On the table with a bright spot - another stack of work. At the table is their author, 79-year-old Evgeny Kostylev-in jeans, a black sweatshirt, a knitted cap and round black glasses. We turn over one after another, geometric shapes are intertwined in an intricate way: white and black circles, red rectangles, yellow triangles, circled in blue.

But the artist himself has not seen his paintings for seven years - he only feels them.

"Lack of vitamins"

Evgeny Kostylev was born in 1939 in a suburbs of Leningrad, the city of Kolpino. He recalls the war abruptly: “Mom and dad from Ukraine, came to Leningrad to build factories. When the German surrounded my mother, she was pregnant. They evacuated, and the father remained in the blockade. Mom’s sister and husband lived in the Urals, her husband built Magnitogorsk, there was a noble metallurgist. Even the Ural poet composed poetry about him: “Orlov has one goal - to give more cast iron.” We were taken to Chelyabinsk by train, from there we got to Magnitogorsk, and then we still moved to Chelyabinsk. Mom gave birth to a brother, they gave us a room. ”

Evgeny Kostylev photo: Vadim Brydov for TD

When the blockade was removed, his father came from Leningrad to his wife and children. He immediately got a job at the factory - and the family remained to live in the Urals.

Evgeny's eyes began to start at school. In the seventh grade at the medical board due to poor vision, he was given liberation from the army. The doctor suggested that military childhood affected.

“Lack of vitamins,” he explains. “It was no better here with food than in Leningrad. ”

After school, Eugene went to the technical school, then to the institute: “He went to study on the rocket launcher, and then thought:“ Yes, these missiles are in figs? The same pipes, only fly. ” And he went to the Faculty of Construction. ”

In the construction team, Eugene married, transferred to the evening department and went to work.

Evgeny Kostylev photo: Vadim Brydov for TD The last 20 works of the artist appeared with the help of his wife Vera: she cuts out and sticks the necessary figures to the dictation of her husband photo: Vadim Brydov for TD

“He was an instrumental, a turner at the factory, the head of the site, his career could make a magnificent, but something did not pull me into this bosses,” he admits. - And so I was active, I was playing sports, the champion of the city in sambo, ran. And he loved to walk around museums, I liked Malevich. Slowly he began to draw himself, well, how to draw - he sketched portraits, I got the cats well. ”

"In a completely empty void "

Speaking, the artist now and then turns to me: did he understand everything? Dark glasses appear in front of me again and again, but each time I nod mechanically - and he continues the story with satisfaction.

Poster of the Coiser Exhibition in Chelyabinsk. The artist points his wife faith as a co -author photo: Vadim Bryadov for TD

Eugene began to try to draw after once he saw the “black square” of Malevich and the cartoon “Creation of the World ” according to the drawings of Jean Effel. Kostylev from memory brings words from there: "In dark, like darkness, darkness, God lived in a completely empty emptiness in silence, and with whom you will be thrown with a word. "

The artist lost his first eye at 35 - retinal detachment, the second then managed to save. Soon after, Kostylev was offered a ticket to Egypt. It cost 500 rubles, salary - 130, but the artist so dreamed of visiting this country that he was able to collect the right amount in time and flew.

“I climbed all the tombs, visited the Cheops pyramid, watched all these casual inscriptions. I saw everything that I saw only in the textbooks, I saw live. He returned to the village, stood on the street and cried. Egypt is a wild country, it turns out, there was, but for me - splendor. ”

Evgeny Kostylev and his diptych photo: Vadim Braidov for TD Favorite work of faith. As profiles of dancing women - the face of the artist himself photo: Vadim Brydov for TD

This splendor and “tormented”, recalls the artist: the experienced shock prompted to search for himself and his style. By that time, Kostylev and his wife and children moved to the village of Sezyan - unlike Chelyabinsk, where there was no housing, they immediately gave an apartment in the village. Vera went to work as a teacher of physics and German to school, Eugene worked as a plumber in a local ZhEK, and continued to draw in his free time.

Rectangle, triangle, circle

“I thought: Leonardo, Rafael - they all painted on biblical plots. And he went to buy the Bible, opened the first page, I read: “In the beginning there was a word, and God had a word, and God was a word.” And hooked. He used these three letters-God-and flowed, when God helped. I always loved geometry, planimetry, stereometry. I circled B - the rectangle turned out, o - a circle, g - a triangle. "

From Portfolio Evgeny Kostyleva

The philosophy of color was added to the symbols over time: the red color is the masculine principle, and the blue is feminine. The rectangle symbolizes a man, a triangle - a woman. And the circle is the child. In the first work, Eugene combined all these symbols among himself and called the “family wagon ” .

“After all, this was not me, I only continued. Malevich called his style, his “black square” in Russian “Higher”, translated into French-Supreha, Suprematism. If the black is the highest, then the white is the lower, I thought. Therefore, the child is white, he has not yet decided what would be from him in life - a man or woman. There are only three characters at the heart of all my paintings: a rectangle, a triangle and a circle. ”

Eugene, Evgeny, designated his style and “black square” - “Zhko ” , connecting the beginning of the name and surname.

He worked on the first paintings by gouache, but almost immediately came up with cutting figures from a color self -adhesive film. This helped continue to work, even when he began to fail the second eye. The artist followed the recommendations of doctors, dripped drops, took medicines - he tried to save his vision to the last.

“Under the new one, 2012 I had an operation, they told me to come a month later. I did not see anything, but I followed all the recommendations. A month later he came, I ask: “Will I ever see?” Then the professor was scared, immediately sent me to another operation, but did not help. Now I have zero vision. ”

Artist and his dog Adolf Photo: Vadim Bryadov for TD

In the first months of the darkness it was “naughty and scary ” , Eugene recalls, it practically failed to fall asleep.

“When all the time is night, you don’t know when to sleep, when not to sleep. I got up at night in winter and went for a walk. Along the fence. Then I got used to it, but I still remember everything that my eyes saw. ”

Figure and line

Standing by the table, Evgeny Kostylev drives his hand on the canvases, feeling his fingers every line and figure, he himself cut out of the film most of them and glued his canvas on a sheet of wood -fiber plate. Then, with complete loss of vision, to cut and glue the wife Vera, the last 20 out of 110 created paintings, appeared with her help with her help.

Evgeny Kostylev prefers large formats, but there are also small pictures of the photo: Vadim Bryadov for TD Part of the work is performed using the application technique, and the artist will recognize them by touch photo: Vadim Bryadov for TD

Eugene tells his wife about the plan of a new work, explains which figures of which color and size should be cut out of the film, the final stage - gluing. Both the artist and the wife admit: the process is conflict.

“Get cursing, yes, she does not understand me,” says Eugene. - Blind is not easy to explain where and what. But then we get to the truth. ” In response, Vera dismisses: “I would not help, but where to go - we are 54 years together. And he lives only with this. ”

Evgeny and Vera Kostylyov photo: Vadim Brydov for TD

All work is stored here, houses, in the village of Belousovo, Chelyabinsk region. Throughout his life, the artist Kostylev had seven exhibitions - “but short -haired ” , the latter was only a week. All that the artist Kostylev hopes today is that someday he will be able to present his work somewhere else.

“Constantly considers the size of the figures, feels from what angle what line will be, where will the center be - everything in my head is calculating,” Schura's grandson agrees. “His head constantly works. ”

Kostylev continues to talk and think about his work, even when he just goes outside. Slowly crossing and touching the wall with his hand, he reaches the door, walks into the spacious hallway-dining room, reaches the canopy-but there is a wall on which you can go further, it turns out too far. Then he raises his hand and grabs the rope, which he extended to himself to the very gate. Holding on to it, passes several meters around the yard, sees on the bench and acquires the dog Adolf.

A fan of constructivism and Suprematism Evgeny Kostylev at the gates of his house photo: Vadim Bryadov for TD

“Sometimes I heard at exhibitions, art historians say: the artist wrote it at the command of the soul. But you will never know what the artist was actually trying to portray. And everything is clear to me: if you see a circle, then this is a child. The yellow color is love, purple is a man and a woman, but without love, and blue, that is, blue and white, this is a dying woman. Logical? Logical. "

Art elderly artists