A painter and graphic artist, Izmail Yefimov is a People’s Artist of Mari El, designer of the State Emblem and flag of the Republic, a member of the Artists’ Union of Russia and an Honored Artist of Russia. At the beginning of his career, the graduate of the Kazan Art College and the Surikov Moscow Art Institute worked in a realistic style, often turning to genre painting. Village life, front-line everyday life, native nature and the culture of fellow villagers — those were the primary subjects for the painter in the 1970s and 1980s. The artist called Ivan Plandin and Vasily Timofeev his first teachers. From plot realism, Ismail Yefimov moved on to abstract symbolic works with floral motifs, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic images, and semi-fantastic characters. The artist at one time actively studied the ancient Finno-Ugric heritage, although he claims that in his works there are no visual references to folklore and ethnographic materials of specific peoples.
In Izmail Yefimov’s art, the theme of his small motherland is very prevalent. In his long-term work on the village theme, he set himself a difficult task: to find and reflect the moral and ethical foundations of Mari folk culture. The artist’s first success came with the works “Rural Gymnast”, “Seeing Off a Soldier Departing for the Front”, “Spring in the Gornomariysky District”, and “My Fellow Countrymen”. In these realistic works, the artist elaborates though the language of color on the beauty of his native land, on rural life, and on the people who live on the Mari land.
In the painting “My Fellow Countrymen”, the artist addresses the theme of a village holiday, through which he unveils the acute problems of the life of a modern village. He convinces the viewer that ordinary villagers do not live only through household tasks. In the painting, the artist seeks to reveal an encounter of people of different destinies and different ages, and to show human characters and the beauty of folk customs and rituals. The multi-figure composition is arranged in a circle, as if echoing the round dance of people in the center and making the viewer feel part of the folk festival.
In Izmail Yefimov’s art, the theme of his small motherland is very prevalent. In his long-term work on the village theme, he set himself a difficult task: to find and reflect the moral and ethical foundations of Mari folk culture. The artist’s first success came with the works “Rural Gymnast”, “Seeing Off a Soldier Departing for the Front”, “Spring in the Gornomariysky District”, and “My Fellow Countrymen”. In these realistic works, the artist elaborates though the language of color on the beauty of his native land, on rural life, and on the people who live on the Mari land.
In the painting “My Fellow Countrymen”, the artist addresses the theme of a village holiday, through which he unveils the acute problems of the life of a modern village. He convinces the viewer that ordinary villagers do not live only through household tasks. In the painting, the artist seeks to reveal an encounter of people of different destinies and different ages, and to show human characters and the beauty of folk customs and rituals. The multi-figure composition is arranged in a circle, as if echoing the round dance of people in the center and making the viewer feel part of the folk festival.
