Background
Mikalai Mikhalap was born on the 28th of April 1886 in Minsk City, Belarus into the family of a railway depot worker.
Mikalai Mikhalap was born on the 28th of April 1886 in Minsk City, Belarus into the family of a railway depot worker.
From 1897 to 1900, M. Mikhalap studied at the parochial school and from 1900-1905 at the town college. After graduating, he entered the private Baron Alexander von Stieglitz`s School of Technical Drawing (nowadays Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design). He graduated from the art drawing faculty in 4 years, and later M. Mikhalap studied ceramics for 6 years. His graduation project was presented by an earthenware sculpture "Bison" created under the influence of Impressionist Realism.
After graduation Mikalai was called up for military service and returned to his native Minsk. He immediately took part in the work of the Committee on Settlement of Refugees from the Western Front. At the 1915 Minsk exhibition "Artists to Warriors" M. Mikhalap showed his works for the first time - 8 ceramic pieces: the decorative sculpture "Bison Calf", vases "Peacock", "Little Fish", "Bee with Clover", etc.
During the first year of the Civil War he worked at the construction of military bridges under the Northern Front Roadwork Authority. Later M. Mikhalap worked as a teacher in Vitebsk area, Dvinsk, Beshankovichy, Smolensk area, Novgorod-Seversk. From 1919 he worked in the district Council of National Economy in Novgord -Seversk as a head of the ceramics workshop.
From 1925 to 1929 M. Mikhalap worked as the head of the ceramics department of Vitebsk Art College (now Vitebsk State College of Art and Culture). He created a workshop, taught the ceramics technology and composition. In 1929, he returned to his native city. In August 1930, M. Mikhalap became the head of the ceramics laboratory in the Industrial Research Institute in the mineral technlogy department in Minsk. He headed the research group on refractory and fine ceramics studied glazing production for facing tiles. He was a member of the Industry Institute Scientific Council responsible for the study of porcelain mass from raw material from the BSSR (Belarus) at the Dulevsky plant (1937).
In March 1939, M. Mikhalap was appointed director of the Picture Gallery in Minsk by special order of the BSSR (Belarus) Council of People`s Commissars despite being non-partisan. In the first half of June 1939, the gallery admitted around 600 paintings, engravings and sculptures, including 50 engravings by Western masters of the17th-18th century that given by the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts. The Gallery was officially opened on the 8rd of November in 1939. The Picture Gallery has in its funds more than 1200 paintings, drawings, sculptures and procelains. More than 400 exhibits are placed in 15 halls of the Picture Gallery. First days of the war were the most tragic page of the museum`s history. It was impossible to evacuate museum collections only by efforts of museum workers. Nevetheless, A. Aladava (she became the Gallery`s director after liberation of Minsk) and M. Mikhalap hid about 48 Slutsk sashes, artist took some objects to their own apartments. On June 26, M. Mikhalap together with gallery workers and some artists left the city. On July 7, he and his family were in the village of Kryazh near Kuibyshev where he found a post of the drawing and painting teacher at school. Kryazh winter landscapes of 1942-1943 could be united in a peculiar suite - severe and graphically rough, with minimal use of colour.
On 19 October 1944, he returned to Minsk and began to work as an academic secretary in the Architectural Council, and later as the head of the art industry sector of the State Board of Architecture under Belarus Council of Ministers. M. Mikhalap presented 4 watercolours at the landscape exhibition of 1945 and started to work actively as the ceramics artist.
In 1946, a competition for the best project of light fitting was held in Minsk, architect U. Karol, a pupil of M. Mikhalap, created five variants in co-authorship with his former teacher. An ornament inspired by Slutsk sashes was taken for decoration.
In 1948, he created his writing utensils and culterly, decorative wall plates, The Partisan Woman panel, flower vases, a reading lamp that became the first examples of the artistic ceramics in post-war Belarus.
In the early 1950s, unique anniversary triumphant vases and several vases from the cycle Belarusian Suite were produced at Minsk Porcelain-Faience Factory after the sketches of the artist. After the sketches of M. Mikhalap, I. Konyukh and I. Prokharau made vases "Anniversary", 1930 dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Polythechnic University and "Soviet Belarus", 1953, which was exhibited at the Belarusian Art Decade in Moscow in 1995. He continued to collaborate with the factory even after his retirement in 1956: he created several small vases of very laconic forms and of grayish-blue and smoky colours.
In 1959, M. Mikhalap participated in the All-Union Scientific Conference on Applied Art, his authority helped to establish all-union Decorative and Applied Art of the USSR Journal.
Mikhalap`s drawings and ceramic works are now kept in the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus, the National History Museum of the Republic of Belarus, the Vitebsk Regional Local History Museum, in the collections of the artist`s descendants and various private collections.
In 2003, there was held first personal exhibition "M. Mikhalap. The First Director" and a scientific conference dedicated to the artist`s many-sided work.
The artist`s bust (author S. Garbunova) has been installed in the museum to commemmorate his work as the first director of the institution.
He was a member of BSSR Union of Artists (1945).
Physical Characteristics: A man of medium height with easy movements.
Quotes from others about the person
A pupil and friend of M. Mikhalap, Iryna Yalamatsava: "Sociable, handsome, kind, always in the public eye, always deep in work, he grew into the art of his motherland with such deep roots that without him it seemed impossible to be comprehended. A friend of People`s Poet of Belarus Yanka Kupala, of Honoured Art Worker of Belarus sculptor M. Kerzin and People`s Artist of Belarus A. Maryks, M. Mikhalap was always in the thick of various creative events...He lived his life happily for he stood higher than shallow interests and pursued his road despite the fortune`s variance".
Mikalai was married to N. I. Razumeenka on May 1918 and had a daughter.
