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Ilya
Mikhailovich Zdanevich

Ilya Mikhailovich Zdanevich (better known as Il'azd, as well as Eli Eganbury, April 21, 1894, Tiflis - December 25, 1975, Paris) - Russian and French writer, publisher, artist. Theorist of Russian avant-garde and Dadaism.

Features of creativity Ilya Zdanevich: It is believed that without Ilya Zdanevich “the Russian avant-garde would not have taken place and the European would be impoverished”. The Italian Filippo Marinetti, the author of the first manifesto of futurism, published in 1909, had a great influence on the formation of Zdanevich. Disillusioned with the theories of Marinetti, Ilyazd created his own artistic direction - “all-about”, which was supposed to replace futurism and, finally, unite numerous artistic directions, both in poetry and painting. All-Quality claimed that all styles have the right to life. Ilyazd himself many years later noted that apart from him, “there was only one true“ artist ”- Picasso. And Zdanevich "discovered" the world for the world. Niko Pirosmani.

Famous works of Ilya Zanevich: pentalogy “aslaablichya” (1918–23), autobiography “Iliazda” (1922), the novel “The Rapture” (1930), the book of sonnets “Afet” (1938-40). All of them came out in a series of books "Livre d'artiste" publishing house "41 degrees", illustrations for the books were created by Pablo Picasso, By max ernst, Joan Miro and Alberto Giacometti. The overall design of the books was made by Illyazd himself.

The father of the future artist and poet was a French language teacher Mikhail Andreevich Zdanevich, a Pole whose ancestors were exiled far from the capital. Ilya Zdanevich's mother, Valentina Kirillovna (nee Gamkrelidze) was from a noble family; a talented student of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, she dedicated her life to music. Ilya's childhood and his brother Cyril passed in Tiflis. But Ilya went to study in St. Petersburg, where in 1917 he graduated from the law faculty at the university in the capital.

Futurists and "Albanian"
During his studies, he met with leading artists and writers - Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Goncharova, Vladimir Burliuk, Vladimir Mayakovsky and Aleksey Kruchenykh. Il'yazd and his comrades in the art association “The Donkey's Tail” published the manifesto “Why We Paint”, where the futurists somewhat pathetically proclaimed: “We tied art to life, and life invaded art. It's time for art to invade life. Face painting - the beginning of the invasion.

In 1916, the play Zdanevich “Yanko Krull Albanska” was published. There is such a text in the play: “since the Albanian izyk comes with Russian at at yvonnava ... in terms of literature, but also typography and printing. And the “Albanian izyk” invented by Il'yazd will be resurrected - already on the Internet, decades later and for a completely different reason.

Zdanevich, Pirosmani, Chanel ...
After the revolution, Ilya Zdanevich left for Tiflis, where he made another attempt to revive Russian futurism. There he became the founder of the publishing brand “41 degrees”: this was the name of the creative union of the Georgian avant-garde artists, in which the figure meant the geographical breadth of Tiflis, the current Tbilisi. Together with his elder brother, artist Kirill Zdanevich, and a friend, an artist Mikhail Le Dante, they “opened” the world of Niko Pirosmani, organized his first exhibition and published articles about the artist in the press. Ilyazd collected the largest collection of works by Pirosmani, which his brother later sold to the state and thus saved the heritage of the famous Georgian artist.

In 1920, Iliazd left Georgia, spent a year in Istanbul waiting for a visa, and in 1921 he arrived in Paris, where he soon entered the circle of Dadaists and Surrealists, was friends with Sonia Delone and Jean Cocteau, By Paul Eluard and Tristan Tzara. Soon he met Coco Chanel, for whom he not only developed designs of fabrics, but also invented a new loom for their production. Iljazd was the director of one of the plants of the company “Fabric Chanel” until 1935, later he developed accessories and sketches for Chanel.

Publishing
The last 35 years of his life he devoted to the release of a unique book series “Livre d'artiste”. According to contemporary collectors, Ilyazd was an excellent designer of his publications, thought through the entire illustrative series, and the artists adjusted to his requirements. And what artists! Together with him, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Joan Miro and Alberto Giacometti worked on the series. The books were published by the publishing house "41 degrees".

Personal life
Despite the diligently developed myth of sexual duality, Ilyazd was married three times. His first companion of life was the model Axel Brokar, in the marriage with which two children were born. Godfather's firstborn daughter Michelle became Coco Chanel. Ilyazda’s second wife, the Nigerian princess Ibironke Akinsemoin, entered his life in 1940, their son Shalva was born. The French occupation authorities interned Ibironke Akinsemoin to the camp; in 1945, after her release, she fell ill and soon died.

In 1968, Zdanevich entered into a third marriage - the artist-ceramist Helene Duar-Maré became his wife. Fulfilling the last will of her husband, Helen organized an exhibition of his works in Tbilisi in 1989, after which she donated many exhibits to the State Museum of Art of Georgia.

Iljazd died in Paris in 1975 and was buried in the cemetery in Leville-sur-Orge. During his lifetime he did not have a single personal exhibition. After the death, representative expositions of Zdanevich's works were held in Tbilisi, and much later - in MoMA and in the Pompidou Center. In December 2015, a large exhibition dedicated to the work of Ilyazd was successfully held at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.
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