Vadim Abramovich Sidur

This article is about the Soviet sculptor. For the Jewish prayer book see Siddur .

Wadim Abramovič Sidur ( Russian Вадим Абрамович Сидур , scientific transliteration Vadim Abramovič Sidur ; born June 28, 1924 in Dnjepropetrovsk , Ukrainian SSR ; † June 26, 1986 in Moscow ) was a Soviet sculptor and graphic artist . In Germany, his bronze sculptures are particularly known, some of which are in German cities. His works often deal with themes of human suffering, disability , violence and death. But also - in the graphic work - the topics of femininity, partnership and eroticism. Sidur was also active as a book illustrator and poet.

life and work

Vadim Sidur was born into a family of "Jewish-Russian Tolstoyans ". His parents were Abram Sidur and Zinaida Andrianova. In 1941 he graduated from middle school. He first worked on a collective farm and later as a lathe operator . The Jewish family on the father's side was shot by the German occupiers in 1944 . Vadim Sidur was in the Red Army moved in and MG - Protect trained. He fought - later as an officer - in the Ukraine in World War II . A gunshot wound to the jaw led to a stay of several months in a hospital and permanently deformed Sidur's face. At the end of 1944 he was discharged from the army.

He first studied medicine in Stalinabad (now Dushanbe ) for a year , which he gave up. His jaw injury was treated again in Moscow. There he began an apprenticeship as a sculptor in the field of monumental sculpture architecture at the Moscow Higher School of Applied Arts , which he completed in 1953. His wife became Julia Sidur. Sidur was influenced by the Scythian stone sculptures, which he got to know at a young age at the Dnipropetrovsk Historical Museum in his hometown. In Moscow, he regularly visited the departments for Egyptian , Assyrian-Babylonian and ancient art of the Pushkin Museum . By contrast, he did not know the artists of modern sculpture such as Moore , Lipschiz , Giacometti and Zadkine because of his isolated situation in Russia or as an Eastern Bloc artist.

With his artistic work, Sidur came into conflict with the official Soviet art doctrine. He worked under difficult conditions in a basement studio on Moscow's Komsomol'sky Prospect. In thirty years he created over 500 sculptures and 1,000 graphics there. Sidur was isolated as an artist between 1960 and the reforms in the late 1980s and has not been exhibited. He was dependent on additional earnings as a book illustrator and designer of tombs. In 1974 he was expelled from the CPSU and was otherwise threatened by state repression.

In the 1970s Sidur gained notoriety and recognition in the West through exhibitions and publications. Some of his bronze sculptures were installed in German cities, such as Der Mahner in Düsseldorf and Treblinka in Berlin-Charlottenburg . On the edge of Friedrichsplatz in Kassel is the sculpture The Victims of Violence . The installation of this sculpture in 1974 was made possible by a citizens' initiative that raised the money to realize the small-format design as a sculpture in urban space. In front of the Würzburg St. John's Church stands his work Death by Bombs (installed in 1974), which he donated to the city in the spirit of the reconciliation of nations.

Wadim Sidur died of a heart attack in 1986 shortly before his 62nd birthday. From 1987 his art was exhibited in Russia, first in May 1987 in Moscow. The Sidur Museum in Moscow's Perovo district was created in 1992 by his son Michail Sidur and close family friends. His skill and importance are compared today with sculptors such as Henry Moore, Jacques Lipchitz and Alberto Giacometti.

Sculptures in Germany (selection)

• 

  Der Mahner ,
  Hofgarten Düsseldorf

• 

  The victims of violence ,
  Kassel

• 

  Death by bombs ,
  Würzburg

• 

  Treblinka (1966),
  district court in Berlin-Charlottenburg

Solo exhibitions (selection)

• 1984: Vadim Sidur: Sculptures , Bochum Art Museum
• 1987: Moscow, 1st exhibition in Russia
• 1992: Gerhard-Marcks-Haus , Bremen
• 2003: Vadim Sidur (1924–1986) - drawings a. Sculptures (50s – 70s) , Sandmann, Berlin
• 2015: Sculptures We Don't See , Moscow Manege

Destruction by the far right Orthodox in 2015

In 2015 Sidur's work was shown in a retrospective entitled Sculptures We Don't See in the Moscow Manege . Activists of the ultra-right orthodox group “ Will of God ” damaged or destroyed several plants. They called for the exhibition to be closed, claiming that the exhibits hurt “the feelings of believers”.

literature

• Wadim Sidur, Karl Eimermacher: Vadim Sidur: Sculptures, Graphics (illustrated book), Universitätsverlag Konstanz, 1978, ISBN 978-3-87940-112-3
• Gisela Riff, Karl Eimermacher: Vadim Sidur - Art in the Age of Terror: Exhibition catalog , Verlag Gerhard-Marcks-Stiftung, 1992, ISBN 978-3924412173
• Vadim Sidur: The happiest autumn. Poems. 1983-1986. Russian German. Puschkin Verlag, Cologne 1992, ISBN 978-3894511296

Web links

Commons : Wadim Abramowitsch Sidur  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Wadim Abramowitsch Sidur in the catalog of the German National Library
• Dietrich Möller: Vadim Sidur - A Russian Sculptor - Deutschlandfunk, June 12, 2001
• Vadim Sidur Museum
• sidur.net ( Memento of February 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), including some images of his work

Individual evidence

1. ↑ so Sidur himself, in: Gisela Riff, Karl Eimermacher: Vadim Sidur; Art in the Age of Terror , Gerhard Marcks Foundation, Bremen 1992, ISBN 3-924412-17-0 , p. 119
2. ^ Karl Eimermacher: The artist Vadim Sidur , at www.stiftung-stmatthaeus.de , accessed on June 7, 2017
3. ↑ Vadim Sidur on www.rusartnet.com , accessed on June 7, 2017
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Gisela Riff, Karl Eimermacher: Vadim Sidur; Art in the Age of Terror , Gerhard Marcks Foundation, Bremen 1992, ISBN 3-924412-17-0 , p. 119
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Dietrich Möller: Vadim Sidur, a Russian sculptor , Deutschlandfunk on June 12, 2001, accessed on June 7, 2017
6. ^ Gisela Riff, Karl Eimermacher: Vadim Sidur; Art in the Age of Terror , Gerhard Marcks Foundation, Bremen 1992, ISBN 3-924412-17-0 , pp. 28 and 51
7. ↑ ^{a b c d} Gisela Riff, Karl Eimermacher: Vadim Sidur; Art in the Age of Terror , Gerhard Marcks Foundation, Bremen 1992, ISBN 3-924412-17-0 , pp. 12-15
8. ^ Gisela Riff, Karl Eimermacher: Vadim Sidur; Art in the Age of Terror , Gerhard Marcks Foundation, Bremen 1992, ISBN 3-924412-17-0 , p. 27
9. ↑ LifeNews публикует видео погрома выставки нонконформистов в Манеже . On August 14, 2015 on lifenews.ru
10. ^ Right-wing extremists destroyed exhibits in Russian art space . On August 15, 2015 on the small newspaper .at
11. ↑ "Православные активисты" разгромили выставку скульптур в Манеже . On August 14, 2015 on newsru.com (attempt at a translation: «The Orthodox Activists», defeated the exhibition of sculptures in the ring ( memento of the original from September 7, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and still not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note . On August 15, 2015 on de.news-4-u.ru)