Alexander Rukavishnikov is the author of a unique kaleidoscope of images, shining with many-sided independence of the whole. The central subject of his art is art itself. He is one of the few rare modern artists for whom the concept of style corresponds, first of all, to uniqueness of spiritual manifestation of an individual personality. 

 

Works by Alexander Rukavishnikov incorporate juices of the great heritage of different peoples’ culture. Reviving forgotten traditions, the sculptor follows a French philosopher and writer’s formula: “We exist to live; art exists to come alive…” He looks for and finds adequate figurative reminiscences, plasticity solutions, system links of a semantic range that make it possible for him to investigate the intrinsic meaning, the spiritual mission of art in developing his own style.

 

Alexander Rukavishnikov was born in Moscow, in to the family of sculptors I. M. Rukavishnikov (1922 — 2000) and A. N. Filippova (1923 — 1988). Alexander is the third in the dynasty of hereditary sculptors. He graduated with honors from the Surikov Moscow State Art Institute in 1974. His graduation work Northern Fisherman gained him honors degree. 

In 1984 he was awarded the title of Honored Artist of RSFSR. Since 1993 he has been the Head of Sculpture Department of the Surikov Art Institute.

 

In 1997 he became a full member of the Russian Academy of Arts.

Alexander Rukavishnikov is a regular participant of all-Russian and international art exhibitions. Rukavishnikov's personal exhibitions took place in the Central House of Artists and in the Russian Academy of Arts in Moscow, in the Nassau Museum of Modern Art (USA), in Dilemann’s Gallery (Belgium) and in other museums and exhibition halls of the world.

Rukavishnikov's art works are kept in collections of the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, Ludwig Museum, Siemens, Hermes, John Wilson, and numerous private and corporate collections.

The year 2012 saw the opening of the Alexander Rukavishnikov Moscow Studio at the Zemlyanoy Val. The sculptor lives and works in Moscow.

 

His most well-known works are as follows:

 

1984 - Vladimir Vysotsky Monument at the Vagankovo Cemetery (Moscow)

1985 — Monument to Mikeshin (Smolensk)

1997 - Monument to Fyodor Dostoyevsky nearby the Russian State Library (Moscow)

1998 - Monument to Vasily Tatishchev in Tolyatti 

1999 — Monuments to Lev Yashin (Moscow)

2000 - Yury Nikulin Monument in front of Nikulin Circus in Tsvetnoy Boulevard (Moscow) 2003 — the Monument to Joseph Kobzon (Donetsk)

2004 - Monument to Alexander II (Moscow)

2007 - Monument to Sholokhov (Moscow)

2008 — Monument to Alexander Zass (Orenburg)

2011 - Muslim Magomayev Monument (Moscow)

2011 – Monument to Heroes of Master and Margarita (Bulgakov’s book)  

2012 — Mstislav Rostropovich Monument (crossroads of Bryusov and Eliseevsky Lanes in Moscow)