Sergey Merkurov (1881–1952) in the Ruins of Ani Item Info
- Description:
- Sergey Merkurov was born in Alexandropol (Gyumri) in a Greek-Armenian family. He studied in Kiev, in Switzerland with the sculptor Adolf Meyer, and in Germany, before joining the August Rodin studio in Paris. In 1907, he returned to Armenia, upon the request of the Armenian Apostolic Church, to take the death mask of Catholicos Mkrtich Khrimian. It is probably during this period that he visited Ani. Having settled in the Soviet Union, Merkurov became an outstanding monumentalist sculptor, giving his works philosophical depth, as in the statues of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Lev Tolstoi, while continuing to produce post-mortem masks of remarkable people such as Lenin. His cousin George Gourdjieff (c. 1866-1877-1949) was an influential spiritual teacher and composer who visited Ani in his youth and was inspired by the ruined city.
- Subjects:
- Sergey Merkurov Mkrtich Khrimian George Gurdjieff Auguste Rodin Sculpture
Citation:
"Sergey Merkurov (1881–1952) in the Ruins of Ani", Ani, Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO), /items/ani_076.html