Hello Igor Valeryvich!

We are the teachers of the Children’s Art School in Glazov. On behalf

of the children (students of our school) we send you our best wishes,

and pass their request to tell us a little about yourself and your life. It’s

been almost 5 years, since your last visit to our school, however we

remember you with affection. Children are looking up to you and they

are asking about you often.

                                                                           We are awaiting for your return, and we hope that, like in the old days,                                                                              you would come to visit our school with an interesting lecture for                                                                                       students. We will be utmost thankful and your visit will be SO                                                                                           important, especially these days, when appreciation for art is changing,                                                                             and every year there are less and less children attending art schools.

                                                                           From the bottom of our heart we wish you happiness and success in                                                                                 everything!

                                                                           Teachers of the Children’s Art School,

                                                                           December, 2005

                                                                           Glazov, Russia.  

Letter to Children at the Preparatory Art School in Russia

Teachers  wrote ( translated from Russian )

Dear Teachers and Students !

Thank you so much for your thoughtful letter! It was very touching to read !

Anyone’s life and career has its source. It happened that my life and my artistic career have always been in parallel to each other.

My first lessons on human values, the traditional values which kept the world going, who knows how many centuries, I have received in my family from my Parents. They taught me to recognize the differences between white (good) and black (bad), to be true to myself and to stay away from gray zone(satisfactory) and to aim for perfection.

I was exposed to visual arts ever since I was a kid, and with the suggestion of my father, Valery V. Babailov, who at the time was the assistant principal of the newly founded Children’s Art School, I started my formal art education at that School, your School.  This is where I was first introduced to the best values in Realistic Art, the art of Da Vinci, Rembrandt and Repin. 

Just like in life, visual art has to have its values, its lights and its darks, its rights and its wrongs. Otherwise, it is a meaningless splash of paint or deformed piece of clay, which has nothing in common with our life and its beauty, and can be produced with the eyes closed….

The art of the Masters requires that essential knowledge and skill, which can only be achieved and learned in the traditional school. Glazov’s Art School introduces you to that knowledge, it teaches you the alphabet of the rich language of the Masters, it provides you with a valuable foundation for becoming a master yourself.

Today I am proud to say, that all my teachers: Babailov, Semakin, Shikalova, Malih, Kondratiev, Mordvin, Batalov, to name a few, were my very first teachers and contributors of what I know today.

If you love to draw, and if you have the ambition to make your dreams come true, nothing should stand in your way to prevent you from making that happen.

Let me share something with you. The way I see it is, if you have a gift to draw you should not take it for granted, you must treasure it, and with the knowledge of your teachers to enrich it with the skill you are given to possess. The more you work, the greater your skill becomes.

Fifteen years ago, after graduating from the Surikov Academy, I went to the North American continent and now live in the United States. I love to work in different genres of painting, but prefer figurative and portraits. In fact, I always did, ever since I studied in your school. It is probably, because portraiture and people are the most challenging forms of art and, personally to me, it makes it even more interesting. I travel a lot, I am often in New York, Washington and other places on the East coast of the United States, which is more traditional, than California on the West coast and tradition to have portraits painted goes back to the first settlers. I paint portraits for Families, as well as having Corporate and Business clients. Because of my profession I have met and painted some Politicians, stars and Celebrities, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and your legendary country-man Mikhail Kalashnikov.  You can see my portraits and other works on my website www.Babailov.com 

I also teach and conduct workshops, and I love doing it - I am sure I inherited it from my parents. Just like my teachers in Russia, I have no secrets from my students and share my knowledge with them completely. I always remember the saying by Leonardo Da Vinci: “ Poor is the student, if he doesn’t become as good or better than his teacher”.

I taught in many schools, including the Florence Academy in Italy. It is fascinating how many people around the world outside of Russia want to learn the traditional and realistic principals in art. Especially today, after being suppressed by the modernistic movements for decades, and as a result almost lost the traditional principals and methods of art education, the methods, left to us by the Masters. If you open almost any art magazine in an American bookstore, you would notice, that most of them are promoting traditional art and are trying to teach how to draw and paint realistically.

At the time, Russia was very lucky to keep its traditional art education on the highest level, because during the Cold War and the “Iron Curtain” Russia’s fine art Curriculum at the art schools and universities wasn’t touched or influenced by Modernism. I even remember a comment by a professor from a Canadian art academy, which he made while the Canadian art delegation toured the Surikov academy in 1988. “ What you (Russians) have now, we (Canadians) lost years ago.” - he told my professor:

Right now, since the Russian borders have finally opened and the world is becoming a smaller and smaller place, Russian School of Art has also become vulnerable to the outside ideas of the “free expressions in art”, which unfortunately may negatively affect the art school’s Academic values, producing fewer and fewer strong and skillful artists.

Russia has a great cultural heritage, which historically also includes one of the finest Visual Art Educations. You must remember that, and not to let it fall apart, but to keep the highest standards.  My art education started in your school, where I took my first steps towards professionalism, and I keep this memory throughout my life and career.

The Children’s Art School is a jewel which Glazov can be proud of ! 

Again, thank you so much for your letter!   Next time, when  I am in Glazov, I will certainly come and visit the school.

Very best wishes for the holidays and a Happy New Year from all of us, the Babailov Family!

Sincerely,

Igor V. Babailov

December, 2005.

Letter-answer  from Igor V. Babailov