Artist Lev Zbarsky: biography. Paintings of Lev Zbarsky

Felix-Lev Zbarsky (1931 - 2016) - graphic artist, illustrator, worked on the creation of cartoons, was in his youth very popular both as an artist and as an original person in the bohemian wealthy environment of the "golden youth".

Childhood

From him little preserved photographs, as well as information about childhood. Apparently, in his entourage it was not customary to recall the young immature years. It is known that he received a double name in memory of those people to whom his father, Boris Zbarsky, a prominent biochemist who took part in the embalming of VI Lenin, treated with respect. During the Great Patriotic War, the body of the leader in the sarcophagus was allegedly taken to Tyumen. Separately, Lenin's brain and heart were preserved. Everything was accompanied by Professor Zbarsky. Lev himself, although he knew, apparently, details, but never talked about these topics. It was in this city that Lev Zbarsky began to draw a little by himself. There he was also found a drawing teacher, who gave him lessons during the entire period of the evacuation.

Study and work

Already in Moscow, after school, he graduated from the Polygraphic Institute. Lev Zbarsky became a professional graphic artist, illustrator of books. They say that he worked easily and quickly, but he often altered a lot, achieving accuracy and accuracy of the transfer of his idea. A fame and popularity was received when he designed Olesha's book in 1956. Then he was twenty-five years old. The dove on the cover is depicted as if with one stroke of a pen. The bird, of course, is executed amazingly. Two repetitive ovals - wing and body - create amazing airiness, serenity and softness. Also it would be desirable to look, what illustrations in the text. But it was impossible to find them. However, there were landscapes of Petersburg, as if enveloped in a misty haze. Slender rows of two-three-story houses on narrow streets, straight canals with quiet water, bridges through them, but one thing strikes - there are absolutely no people and trees. Either the city was depopulated, or there was a white night outside. But really everything is dressed with a stone, and from the lifelessness of the landscape you involuntarily become cold. In addition, Lev Zbarsky made illustrations for the memories of the French singer and actor Yves Montand "The sun is full of head", to the plays of William Saroyan.

Appearance of the artist

For some reason, few of his photographs were preserved. There is one well-known - half-long hair, eyebrows, bulging eyes, a cigarette in his mouth. He was obviously fooling around and posing. And they say that he was tall and thin. Not athletic. The body moved frantically and freely, but with careless grace. This was Zbarsky Lev Borisovich. In addition, he dressed expensive, in all the best that caused admiration. The clothes were from Italy, France, England - it was a stylish, artistic man who impressed both women and men. This is a real secular lion.

Lev Zbarsky is an artist

In 1962, the puppet cartoon "Banya" was released on the basis of a play by Vladimir Mayakovsky. The director was Sergei Yutkevich, the music was written by Rodion Shchedrin, and Zbarsky Lev Borisovich became an artist-director. The essence of the cartoon was to criticize the Soviet bureaucracy - the homeland does not need the time machine that our modern "lefties" invented, and the West begs for them. Everyone wants to see the commander of Pobedonosikov to get permission from him to travel to the future. But his secretary stands guard and does not allow anyone to enter the body. From the time machine suddenly there is a woman who calls the best people in the 30s of the twenty first century. They will meet there the first astronaut, and all the bureaucrats will fly into the garbage. The next year, a new picture - a cartoon "Moskvich". This is a funny story about those who violate the rules of the road. And, finally, the painting "The Country of Orchestra" (1964) is a puppet cartoon in which musical instruments come to life. To them on tour from the western countries comes Saxophone. Everywhere his posters, posters - he is a master of advertising. But the music of Saxophone and Guitar is bad, and it is waiting for failure.

First marriage

Not being handsome, Lev Zbarsky always revolved in the secular "get-together" of that time. His personal life was rather disorderly. Not only that he had a huge fashion workshop in the center of Moscow on Vorovskogo Street with an area of two hundred square meters. M, so all the free time he spent with friends in the cafe "National" or in the WTO. Women themselves paid attention to him. It happened with the most beautiful model of that time Regina Nikolaevna Kolesnikova. She was at the peak of her career. Foreign fashion designers, when it became possible to show Russian fashion abroad, called it Russian Sophia Loren. Regina spoke beautifully to them in French. The mannequin and the artist got married. Regina Zbarskaya dreamed of a calm family life, of children. But her husband introduced her to his circle of friends, among whom, for example, Boris Messerer, a relative of Maya Plisetskaya, took his wife to official receptions, led a cheerful, easy bohemian lifestyle, and no children or silence bothered him. And Regina's dream of a quiet family life did not come true. At the insistence of her husband, Regina had to lose her baby when she became pregnant. This will subsequently affect her mental health.

Beautiful women in the life of an artist

And then Zbarsky Lev Borisovich was carried away by the beautiful actress Marianna Vertinskaya and left his wife. Marianne was amazing - red hair sparkling in the sun, blue eyes of the color of the sky, a strong character that attracted, rather than repelled people. From the age of seventeen she was in the movies. Her whole life was known to her and her younger sister, as well as father and mother. The whole year they spent together. Later, he marries another actress Lyudmila Maksakova. Here Regina Zbarskaya is waiting for a blow - in this marriage the son Maxim was born. But here normal life did not happen. Young first lived in the artist's studio, and when the child was born, Lyudmila Vasilyevna took the baby to her home. My husband did not part with his favorite workshop. Lyudmila had to live in two houses. After the performances, she ran into the studio to put everything in order, and then rushed to the child. Such a life for a long time could not continue, and Lyudmila decided to divorce. Meanwhile, Regina Zbarskaya perished, taking tranquilizers.

Emigration

In 1972, having a lot in his homeland - his position, his circle of friends, his property (a workshop, a beautiful dacha in the Serebryany Bor), Lev Zbarsky, an artist whose biography was beautifully formed, leaves the country forever and leaves first for Israel. As friends explain, he was simply bored. Israeli writer Ephraim Sevela gave him money to buy a huge loft in America - a loft, and in 1978 he moved to the United States. So the artist has a modern bright, huge workshop, equipped to his liking. Then the life of Lev Zbarsky in Manhattan becomes closed to people living in Russia. It is known that, while living in New York, he liked to visit the restaurant "Russian Samovar" on Fridays, the hostess of which was his friend, and watch Russian newspapers in it. He was visited only by very close friends. It was Maxim Shostakovich and his son Dmitry, director Nina Sheveleva, artist Cyril Doron. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he never came to Moscow or Leningrad. He did not meet either with his son or with his grandson.

Disease and death

Ill with lung cancer, Lev Zbarsky, whose biography is coming to an end, dies on February 22, 2016 in New York. He lived a long life. He was 84 years old. He is buried in the giant Jewish cemetery "Mountain of Moria" in New Jersey. His funeral was attended by sixteen-year-old granddaughter Anna Maksakova and twenty-five-year-old grandson Peter Maksakov, who came to his wife Galina, the daughter of Valentine Yudashkin, who was preparing for childbirth. Grandson grandfather alive never seen.

The funeral for Leo Zbarsky took place in the "Cigar" hall on the second floor of the restaurant "Russian Samovar", which he once designed. The words spoken at the funeral were warm and sad. A tribute was paid to his talent.