Sculpture in stone

                                       "Sculpture in  Stone"

   A small one-storeyed house is visible from the window of our apartment.   A close-knit family of  Kalinushkin lived   there many years ago. My grandmother Ksenya and  grandfather Peter   knew this family very  well. Their son Nikolay was born in the family in 1948. Nikolay studied at our school   number … until  the seventh form.

   Later Nikolay Aleksandrovich became the gifted artist and the talented sculptor. The  pupils of our school study N. A. Kalinushkin's works  and life for some years. We  met  with a widow of the sculptor and organized   the meetings with  his pupils and colleagues. N. A. Kalinushkin worked  much  to make his native town  more and  more beautiful. Under the leadership of N. A. Kalinushkin  some symposiums on  sculpture took place in Ufa. The idea of the symposiums was noble . The participants decided to create a number of sculptural works for the city streets and squares. As a result of the creative symposiums the unique collection of sculptures    appeared in the open air  in Ufa.  

   This year we are celebrating the  27-th anniversary of  the first symposium "Sculpture in  Stone" in Ufa. N. A. Kalinushkin became the organizer  and  the artistic director of the  first  meeting. The  sculptures  of the first symposium were  placed near the Russian Drama theater.

   Some following symposiums took place in Kalininsky district of Ufa. UEPA presented to sculptors a  recreation facility "River dawns". Here the sculptors lived  and worked, creating their  masterpieces. The place for an arrangement of the created works of art was defined: the territory of  the recreation center of UEPA. At that time it was simply the waste ground.

   The sculptural ensemble "Zodiac signs" turned out surprisingly beautiful. I saw these sculptures when  I was absolutely small. It is a pity that these sculptures  are disappeared  now. The sculpture "Angel" from this symposium is located on the territory of the temple of Kazan Mother of God in the residential district Inors.

On the territory of the recreation center of UEPA there  is a park  "Pervomaysky " . I like to visit this park with my friends . Its main decoration is sculptures which were created in the late 80th -  the beginning of the 90th years of the XX century. There is a work of Nikolay Aleksandrovich "Forge" in the  park. Sculptures  are very harmoniously fitted into the image of the park, giving   a peculiar look. Unfortunately, the part of sculptures  are disappeared. Works of  the last symposium, taken place   in1999, are  installed on Revolyutsionaya street.  N. A. Kalinushkin is  an author of the sculpture "Ural Batyr" , made out of  marble.

  Park sculptures were made out of lime-stone generally. The creation of park sculpture ensembles is a very hard work. Masters created the sculptural compositions in various manners and out of different  materials. But all the works , connecting together ,    look  as a   natural part of a city landscape nowdays.

   N. A. Kalinushkin didn't stop working in urban architecture until his death. His last monument was opened in 2003. It is a sculpture "Grieving Mother". The creation of the monument is a testimony of high patriotism of N. A. Kalinushkin.

  Deep in my heart I do believe people safe guard all the works of  UFA outstanding citizen N. A. Kalinushkin .  

  I liked the poem which was composed by my schoolmate. I decided to translate it into English.

The boy, big-eyed and clever, studied at our school.

He  could stay for  hours,  reading a  book.

He grew  not a hero,  but a  usual boy at all.

He fell in love with art so safely,

Created   the masterpieces step by step,

And in his  hands the tree sang and  the  marble ringed.

  He loved Russia   by  his soul,

 And    could express the love   in pictures, in sculptures.

 Sometimes    he  taught   lessons  for us.

He glorified the mother's heart,

The woman, standing unshakable, firmly believing

The son will go  back  some days  and will embrace her again!