Background
Filipovich was born on the 9th (May 27) of June in 1886, Minsk City, Belarus; the son of Matsvei Kozmich Filipovich and Alena Fadzeeuna.
Filipovich was born on the 9th (May 27) of June in 1886, Minsk City, Belarus; the son of Matsvei Kozmich Filipovich and Alena Fadzeeuna.
Mikhail Filipovich studied at parish school. In 1910, Filipovich entered Minsk non-classical secondary school. With the beginning of World War I the school was evacuated to Yaroslavl, where he successfully finished his studies in 1917. In 1918, Filipovicvh entered the Moscow Surveying Institute (nowadays Moscow State Mining University) and simultaneously attended the private studio of the painter Anikita Khotulev.
In 1919, Filipovich joined the State Free Art Studios. In 1920, he was sent to Moscow to the Higher School of Military Camouflage where he studied for 11 months. At the end of 1920, the Talent Commission directed him to Moscow to the Higher Art and Technical Studios and then entered the studio of Konstantion Korovin. In 1924, the Central Executive Committee of the Union of the Workers in the Arts of Belarus sent Filipovich to Higher Art and Technical Studios to Moscow again, where he studied in 1925-1930.
In 1919, Mikhail Filipovich volunteered for the Red Army. In 1919-1920, M. Filopovich served as a medical orderly at the Denikin front, but the weak health spared him from the front life. In 1921, due to the lack of money, Filipovich had to return to Minsk. On September 21, 1921 there was held the first artistic exhibition in post-war time in Minsk.
As early as 1910 he started a sketch album called Belarusian Weaving Patterns and continued to create similar albums in the 1920s (Traditional Wood Carving, Traditional Sashes, Vitebsk Printed Cloth, Belarusian Traditional Costume, etc.), all of them are of great historical value, Impressions of architecture and way of life of Belarusian cities and villages. In 1922, there was held the first personal exhibition in Minsk.
He took an active part in the cultural life of the young BSSR (Belarus): in 1922-1923 - an artistic instructor of the painting department of the Main Political and Enlightening Committee in Minsk; in 1923 - an executive manager of the decoration of the Belarusian pavilion at the All-USSR Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow; in 1923-1925 - a head of the artistic department in the Belarusian State Museum.
Besides, the artist created portraits, in particular, of his friend M. Stanyuta and famous painter P. L. Mrachkouskaya, but they have not be preserved. Two of his works at the exhibition of 1921 were named "Clouds". The same name bears the sketch of 1942. ''Old Shepherd with a Pipe" (the first half of the 1920s) is one of the folk musians, whom Filipovich met in his journeys and whom he admired. In the 1920s, M. Filipovich depicted views of native Minsk in various techniques. Early illustrations to the Belarusian folk tales in watercolours (Blacksmith of the Hero, The Blacksmith and One-eyed Sorrow, etc.) were made in the art nouveau style: elaborated rthythm of lines, languid tone of subdued coloures, mystical mood.
The period of the creative rise of the 1920s was finished for Filipovich with the end of the active "belarusization'' period (a policy of protection and advancement of the Belarusian language and recruitment and promotion of ethnic Belarusians). The paintings of Filipovich vanished from the museum`s expositions, he was attacked by artistic critics.
Having returned to Minsk after the institute graduation in 1930, he soon left for Moscow again. In Higher Art and Technical Studios M. Filipovich had organized the group of painters from Belarus, took part in the organization and was a member of different creative associations in Minsk and Moscow. In 1930s, members of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia elected him group leader of painters who participated in the decoration of Moscow`s plants and factories. In the summer of the same year he signed a contract with the publishing house "Izogiz" and went to Uzbekistan. Some works created during this artistic trip were bought by Tretyakov Gallery, were printed as postcards and reproductions. He created the series of 1929 "about the introduction of tractors to collective farms". In 1931, he was sent to Baku to paint portraits of foremost people in industry awarded with the Order of Lenin.
Since 1932, M. Filipovich continued to participate in Belarusian exhibitions, but with the paintings of the socialist time: "Land Reclamation in Uzbekistan, "When Distributing Water", "the Rich Won`t Have It". The creative work of Mikhail Filipovich of the second half of the 1930s is presented in the museum collection mostly by watercolor paintings: ''The Cossack Woman from the Don" 1936, "The Portrait of a Boy, Kindergarten", 1935.
In 1939, he came to Minsk and took part in the creations of the theatrical scenery to the opera "The Flower of Happiness" by A. E. Turankou. In 1939-1941 he worked in Minsk, participated in exhibitions, created paintings for the historical museum. He helped to publish "The Partisan Cudgel". In 1941-1944, he served in the army.
In August 1944, Filipovich came again to Minsk, worked as the head of the artistic department of a publishing house, painted commissions for the Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War. He was a member of different creative associations in Minsk and Moscow. His last years Filipovich spent in Moscow and died there.
In 1921-1928, Mikhail Filipovich created up to 150 works in oil and 400 drawings in Indian ink, gouache, watercolours, up to 150 illustrations of Belarusian folk tales, illustartions to the poems of Y. Kupala, studies of theatrical scenery for the First Belarusian theatre, etc. The paintings "The Battle of the Nemiga" has become the classical painting of Belarusian art.
More than 100 works of Filipovich (besides magazine graphics and works retained only in reproductions) have been preserved till our day, and it is very rare for the Belarusian artist of the period.
Mikhail's creative work was appreciated at its true value in the 1920s in the publications of Zmitrok Byadulya and Mikalai Schakatsikhin. His paintings are kept in the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus.
Round Dance (Lyalnik) (between 1921-1922)
(Lyalnik is holiday in honor of Lyalya, the goddess of the...)
At Kupalle (between 1921-1922)
(The painting depicts on unrestrained, almost ecstatic dan...)
Tank Attack
(The painting shows the Soviet tank attack - in broad dayl...)
1940Cavalry attack
(The artist used the authority of the historical style to ...)
1942The Battle of the Nemiga (the beginning of the 1920s)
(The painting depicts the fight of the Vseslav the Seer`s ...)
Fairy-tale story (between 1921-1922)
(It is seen as a symbol of eternal struggle between Good a...)
The Landscape with Storks
the study Sunset
Quotes from others about the person
Minsk actress Stefania Stanyuta about his last years: "...And I saw him working. Do you remember... he sat usually with a bent head and kept silent... Cheerless, with a sleepy face. He looked far older than he was. You are never to see him combed... as if he give up everything including himself. And suddenly a completely different person in front of you - he began to work. It impressed me greatly. His eyes were live asnd young, his look was shrewd and tenacious, and his movements were light and quick. He turned out to be just handsome...
