RUSSIA: Russian pensioner turns his house into a fine arts museum

With more than 400 copies of old masters' paintings, all created by his own hand, an 82-year-old Russian pensioner has turned his house into a museum of fine arts. Chudovo is a small provincial town 600 km north of Moscow. There are no major tourist attractions there. But a local pensioner, Konstantin Ekshibarov dreams of changing the town's image and creating a regional arts centre. Visitors to his old wooden house in a village on the outskirts of the town are astonished when they see numerous treasures from the world's best fine arts museums covering walls and ceilings of the house. All of the paintings are full size copies of the originals, and all painted by Ekshibarov himself. Born in a village in southern Siberia, Konstantin Ekshibarov fell in love with art and painting at an early age. He served with the Red Army as a doctor during World War Two, and during the capture of Koenigsberg, now Kaliningrad, Ekshibarov saw an old painting from a gallery destroyed by Russian soldiers. It was then that he felt felt that beautiful art must be rescued and shown to people. After the war he followed his passion, and devoted all his spare time to painting copies of famous artworks. "I haven't studied a single day. I am self-educated. But, I'll tell you, Gainsborough, the portrait painter - one of the most prominent figures in the history of English art - he also didn't study a single day; it's simply a question of talent," said the 82-year-old Ekshibarov, sitting in a room at home, covered with copies of world famous paintings. In more than 50 years, Ekshibarov has painted more than 400 copies of original paintings. In recent years, he has become somewhat of a local celebrity, and is often interviewed by journalists. Recently a Chudovo local administration official and a regional museum curator came to see his collection of paintings and tried to convince him to give some of his works for show at a museum. "It would be nice to show these masterpieces to the whole town. For example, I have lived in this town for several years now, and, of course, I have heard about Konstantin Sergeevich, but it is the first time I see his works. And I am amazed. I would like more people to see it," said Elena Dolzhikova from the local Chudovo administration. Ekshibarov has spent nearly all his pension money on his passion for painting, buying canvases. He still has some paints left from the Soviet era and makes frames for paintings from discarded wood from old fences. Ekshibarov does not use his talent to make money. He has not sold a single painting, nor has he accepted a commission from anyone. In his pursuit of art, he follows only his own tastes and intuition. "Italians I like the most, in second place are the Flemish artists, in third are the French, fourth the Spanish artists, then the English; I love all schools of art, and copy a bit of everything," said Ekshibarov, surrounded by his copies of Italian masters. In his bedroom he has a large bookcase filled with reproductions of paintings from the world's best known collections. Ekshibarov has been gathering the collection for many years and is proud of it. But in his volumes with reproductions one cannot find any of the works by modern artists. For Ekshibarov artwith Matisse. In his large two-story house, which he shares with his wife Anna Vasilievna, only the kitchen is free of paintings. Anna Vasilievna does all the housework but shares her husband's love of the arts, and helps him look after his growing number of paintings. "I like these paintings very much. Especially when I am in a bad mood, I go upstairs and forget about everything. I sit there for a long time and enjoy watching them and I come downstairs, a new person," says Anna Vasilievna. The couple dream of turning their house into the museum where people, who cannot travel throughout the world to see the originals can come and learn about history of art. "One thing I don't want is for my collection to be taken away piece by piece and exhibited in saunas and houses. I want it to be preserved, and for Anna Vasilievna and myself to be remembered sometimes. I will agree if I hear that somebody wants to exhibit my collection as a whole. You cannot open a Hermitage in every town, people should understand it," said Ekshibarov, after declining an offer from the local museum to exhibit a selection of his works. He now exhibits his works in 15 rooms at home. But like all museums he is running out of space and dreams of building an extension to the house to hang the scores of canvases he keeps rolled up in a storeroom. One more dream that Ekshibarov has is for Mikhail Piotrovsky, the director of Russia's Hermitage Museum to visit his small museum.

ITN Source | September 2, 2007

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