Peter Fishman

Biography

Peter Fishman’s graduation project of 1978 was called “Monument to the Komsomol Sappers of the Demidov District”. The state examining commission gave it the top mark and added its praise; the project was supervised by the sculptor Albert Sergeev, People’s Artist of the RSFSR, a Soviet honorary title.

Fishman was born on 30 November 1955 in Kyiv, into the family of a serviceman. His father was posted from place to place, and the family moved often. In 1967 they settled in Smolensk. There the boy began drawing at the art studio of the Palace of Pioneers, a state-run after-school centre for children, and in 1969 he entered the children’s art school. He then studied in the art and graphics department of the Smolensk State Pedagogical Institute, which he graduated from with the project mentioned above.

From 1980 to 1986 he worked as a sculpture restorer at the Smolensk State Museum-Reserve. He still restores historic and artistic monuments, alongside his own work and teaching. From 1978 Fishman took part regularly in all-Union and all-Russian exhibitions, beginning with the All-Union Exhibition of Young Artists in Moscow. In 1989 he was admitted to the Union of Artists of the USSR, and later became a member of the Union of Artists of Russia. Among the exhibitions where he showed work were the all-Union “Guarding the Gains of Socialism” (Moscow, 1988), the inter-republican “Monuments of the Fatherland in the Works of Artists of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus” (Smolensk and Minsk, 1991), the all-Russian “Russia” shows (1999 and 2004), and two all-Russian sculpture exhibitions, in Lipetsk (2006) and Saransk (2009, in memory of Stepan Erzia). In 1994 a solo exhibition of his work was held at the Konenkov Museum of Sculpture in Smolensk. In 1998 and 2000 he organised stone sculpture symposiums in Smolensk. In 2005 he led a creative group in an exchange between the twin cities of Smolensk and Hagen in Germany. In that year his granite “Wish Fulfilling Fish” and “Phoenix” appeared in Hagen; earlier, in 2001, his granite “Nude” had been installed there. In Smolensk there are the granite “Sculptor’s Muse” (1998) and “Unusual Fish” (2000).

Most of his monumental work relates to military history and to people of the Smolensk region. These are bronze busts of Lieutenant General Nicolay Gagen (2004) and Major General Konstantin Rakutin (2008) in Yelnya, and of Major General Vasiliy Sosedov (2002), Major General Evgeni Olenin (2011) and Vice-Admiral Stepan Makarov (2010) in Smolensk, where there is also a bust of Aleksandr Oleynik (2005). For Smolensk he also made memorial plaques to General Ivan Chernyakhovsky (2013) and the writer Boris Vasilyev (2014), and in 2015 a bronze sculpture of the governor Aleksandr Lopatin.

Fishman works in monumental and easel sculpture. His work is characterised by careful modelling, attention to the individual features of the sitter and use of the natural texture of the material. He also does artistic design and develops plans for the reconstruction of urban space. His monumental and decorative works stand in cities in Russia and Germany; his easel works are in museums and private collections in Russia, the Netherlands, Germany and Israel.

He has received diplomas from the Union of Artists of Russia (1999) and the Russian Academy of Arts (2004), and in 2005 a state grant from the Union of Artists of Russia. He teaches sculpture in the design department of Smolensk University for Humanities; by some accounts, since 2005. His post is described in different ways: associate professor or professor.