Nika golts interesting facts. Nika Goltz: ''A book is theater''

Main works:

“Fairy Tales” by O. Wilde, “Petersburg Tales” by N. Gogol, “The Black Hen, or Underground Inhabitants” by A. Pogorelsky, “Tales and Stories” by V. Odoevsky, “Fairy Tales and Stories” by E.T.A. Hoffman, “ Fairy tales" by V. Gauf, "German folk poetry of the 12th-19th centuries", "Tales of Mother Goose" by C. Perrault, "English and Scottish folk tales", "Wizards come to people" by A. Sharov, "Fairy tales" by H.K. Andersen, as well as individual editions of his “The Snow Queen”, “Thumbelina”, “The Ugly Duckling”.
A series of works on the themes of works by V. Odoevsky, H. K. Andersen, and Russian fairy tales.
Series of landscapes of Russia, Denmark, Scotland, Egypt.
Painting the foyer of the Musical Theater for Children named after. N.I. Sats, with the inclusion of two panels based on sketches by academician of architecture G.P. Golts, the artist’s father.

Many works by Nika Georgievna Golts are in Russian museums, including Tretyakov Gallery, and private collections in Russia and abroad - in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Italy, USA.

Since 1953, N.G. Golts has been participating in Moscow, Russian, all-Union and international exhibitions.

Exhibitions: Canada, India, Denmark (1964); Yugoslavia (1968); Biennale in Bologna (Italy, 1971); Biennale in Italy (1973); "Book-75"; Exhibition of illustrators of works by the Brothers Grimm in Berlin (1985); Denmark (Aarhus, 1990; Vejle, 1993) together with Danish artists.

In 2006, Nika Georgievna Golts was awarded the Diploma of H.-K. Andersen of the International Children's Book Council (IBBY) for illustrations for the collection “The Big Book” best fairy tales Andersen."

The artist’s friends say that when Nika Georgievna paints still lifes - bouquets of flowers, little people always sit in the flowers: nymphs, elves. Moreover, adults do not immediately notice them, but children look at the flowers and, first of all, see these fairy-tale people.

When you look at the works of Nika Goltz, it seems that the world of the fairy tale is real and exists somewhere in a corner of the planet known to the artist. Perhaps this place is Nika Georgievna’s beloved Denmark: “This is a small country, but it is colossal. Because it contains such a variety of different landscapes: there is a dense forest, and of amazing beauty;
Il. N.G. Golts to H.K. Andersen’s fairy tale “The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep” there are such amazing oak trees - they grow a little differently than our oaks. They branch from the root - these are the famous oaks of Umols. I am so lucky that for almost 20 years I have had very close friends there, and we have traveled all over this amazing country. There I saw churches from the 11th century with paintings that also didn’t look like anything else. This is already Christianity, but the Vikings painted them. This is something particularly Danish. Denmark is also my favorite artist Hanashoe, whom I sometimes call “Danish Serov”. Thanks Denmark. For her beauty, for her kindness, for her amazing charm.”

“A book is a theater. An illustrator performs a performance. He is an author, an actor, a master of lighting and color, and most importantly, a director of the whole action. There must be a thoughtful alternation of scenes, there must be a climax. I have always been fascinated by this solution to the book like a performance."

“A child sees more than an adult. He is helped by spontaneity, unencumbered by the conventions of the image. That’s why the first impression of a book is so important. It remains for life. It emphasizes the idea, cultivates taste.” Nika Golts

Honored Artist of Russia.

Graduated from the Moscow State Art Institute named after V.I. Surikov, workshop N.M. Chernyshova.
Came into book illustration in 1955.
In 1956, the publishing house "Detgiz" published the first book illustrated by her, "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" by G.-H. Andersen.
She worked in book and easel graphics at the publishing houses "Children's Literature", " Soviet artist", "Soviet Russia", "Russian book", "Pravda", " Fiction", "EXMO-Press", "Makhaon", etc.
In 2006 she was awarded the Diploma of H.-K. Andersen International Children's Book Council (IBBY) for illustrations to the collection "The Big Book of Andersen's Best Fairy Tales."

Books with illustrations by the artist

For all lovers of illustrated children's books. Every week we will “discover” one of the illustrators for you. And every week there will be an additional 8% discount on his books. The discount is valid from Monday to Sunday.

The sonorous name Niki Golts is familiar to every lover of good children's literature and illustrated books. Nika Georgievna Golts (1925-2012) was and remains a true classic of the Russian school of illustration. We look through her eyes at the most beloved and dear to our hearts children's stories: “The Snow Queen”, “Little Baba Yaga”, “The Nutcracker”, “The Little Prince”, “The Black Hen and the Underground Inhabitants”.

Her creative destiny largely determined by parents. Her mother instilled in her a love for classical literature. Father, Georgy Pavlovich Golts, was an architect, theater artist and an excellent graphic artist. His tragic death turned the artist’s life upside down.

It’s hard to believe, but the artist herself never thought that she would be engaged in book illustration. She was attracted to monumental wall painting and the creation of panels. But it just so happened that her only monumental work was painting a hundred-meter wall in the N.I. children's musical theater under construction. Sats, in the composition of which she included two panels based on her father’s sketches.

At first, she was driven into the world of book illustration by need - she needed to somehow support her family. But suddenly Goltz finds himself in book graphics; it becomes an inexhaustible source of self-expression. After all, according to the artist, “... a book is theater. An illustrator performs a performance. He is the author, and the actor, and the master of lighting and color, and most importantly, the director of the entire action. There must be a thoughtful alternation of scenes, there must be a climax.”

Her first work was the book “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” by Hans Christian Andersen. Since then, Nika Georgievna has had a special relationship with this storyteller and his homeland.

She herself said that she was drawing a “Russian Andersen.” But the magical fragility of her children's figures, as if moving on tiptoe, and the bright, rounded images of kings and cooks perfectly illustrate the fantastic, funny and sad works Danish storyteller. And Denmark became a beloved, almost native country for the artist.

The Danes even created private museum Nicky Goltz. And it was for Andersen that in 2005 she received a silver medal from the Academy of Arts, and a year later for illustrations for the collection “The Big Book of Andersen’s Best Fairy Tales” she was awarded the G.-H. Andersen International Children's Book Council.

The artist also liked the pantheon of small magical creatures by the German storyteller Otfried Preusler. Goltz perfectly conveyed the mischievous spirit of the slightly disheveled and eternally curious Little Baba Yaga, Little Ghost, and Little Vodyanoy.

Under her pen, a grotesque world filled with outlandish shadows comes to life. famous works Hoffmann - fairy tales “The Golden Pot”, “The Royal Bride”, “The Lord of the Fleas”.

Nika Georgievna did not distinguish between “children’s” and “adult” illustrations. She always believed that children need to draw like adults, this is a dialogue on equal terms, because: “a child sees more than an adult. He is helped by spontaneity, not burdened by the conventions of depiction.”

It is no coincidence that she became the author of illustrations for two poignant stories about childhood and loneliness: “Star Boy” by Oscar Wilde and “ The Little Prince» Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Exupery's hero appears before us among endless alien spaces, with which his golden glow sometimes merges. And the Star Boy first becomes like the ancient Narcissus, only to then lose his face (the artist does not draw the hero’s ugliness, but simply “covers” his face with his hair) and finds his true self, going through suffering.

Nika Georgievna Golts lived an amazingly long and full life. creative life. Her work remained in demand among publishers even in the 90s. At 80 years old, she was still interested in the characters in her illustrations, and she even returned to many of them again, because over the years, by her own admission, she began to draw even more interestingly and freely. Her daylight hours were invariably devoted to her favorite work (she usually gave her interviews in the evening). Goltz's impeccable drawings, created in traditional techniques gouaches, pastels, watercolors, were and remain an aesthetic tuning fork in the colorful and diverse world children's illustration.

Natalia Strelnikova

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As a child, pictures in books are taken for granted, and if we sometimes still remembered the writer, the artist usually remained nameless and ignorant forever. And they leave the same way: unnoticed, without information hype. No, having matured, we usually understand that childhood gave us a royal gift - a whole constellation of talented book illustrators. But usually only amateurs remember them by name: Chizhikov, Semenov, Diodorov, Migunov, Tragouty, Vladimirsky, Tokmakov, Valk, Kalinovsky, Itkin, Eliseev, Monin, Skobelev, Alfeevsky, Miturich - it’s still impossible to list them all.

Nika Georgievna Golts was perhaps the only lady who rightfully asserted her place as a prima figure in this brilliant generation of illustrators. Moreover, if the “boys,” as she called them, were almost entirely “chicks of Dekhterev’s nest”: they graduated from the department he headed book graphics at the Surikov Institute, then Goltz ended up in illustration largely by accident. She started out as a muralist and studied at the department of the famous Chernyshev. But she didn’t have the chance to paint frescoes and make sgraffito - Nika Golts’s only monumental work was painting the foyer of the Sats Musical Theater for Children.

The artist's father, academician of architecture Georgy Golts, died in a car accident when she was in her third year. It was necessary to somehow feed the family, and Nika Georgievna began to earn extra money by drawing postcards and illustrating collections in “Detgiz”. In 1956, she made her first book - the thin “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” by Andersen, after which, as she herself admitted, she finally realized that illustration was no longer a side hustle, but the work of her whole life, which, fortunately for us, turned out to be long.

The first book turned out to be symbolic: Andersen became its main author, she drew his books for many years, illustrated all the fairy tales translated from us, and in Denmark, where several of her exhibitions took place, they even created a private museum for Niki Goltz. It was for Andersen that in 2005 she received a silver medal from the Academy of Arts, and a year later for illustrations for the collection “The Big Book of Andersen’s Best Fairy Tales” she was awarded the G.-H. Andersen International Children's Book Council.

However, Nika Goltz’s work is by no means limited to the great Dane. There was Hoffman - almost all of them too. There was Pogorelsky - a re-release of his “Black Hen”, last time published almost before the revolution, it was Goltz who at one time sold it in “Detgiz” and all her life she was proud of this “return” more than the title of Honored Artist of Russia. There were almost all Western European storytellers: from the Brothers Grimm to Preusler. There were tales of the peoples of the world: from Mesoamerica to Africa; there were numerous illustrations for Soviet authors working in the now half-forgotten genre of fairy tales. There were works in easel painting, exhibitions in Canada, India, Denmark, Yugoslavia, Italy and Germany.

Finally, there was the sincere love of children, which never experienced cooling. Fortunately for us, Nika Georgievna’s work turned out to be not only diverse, but also very long. She always drew, every day and all daylight hours - all interviews were done only at dusk, so as not to waste time. Even in those five years at the turn of the era, when publishing houses, crazy with luck, brought down the book hunger of the population with tons of translated “Angeliques”, “Mike Hammers” and “Dragons of Pern”, and no one needed domestic illustrators, I still drew, no matter what. without losing one iota of technique or talent. And already a few years after a short oblivion, publishing houses were queuing up to see her, and even at 86 years old, her time was planned out a year in advance. And then she simply didn’t think ahead.

Nika Georgievna Golts(March 10, 1925 - November 9, 2012) - Soviet and Russian artist, known primarily as a book illustrator. Honored Artist Russian Federation.

Life and creativity

Father - Georgy Pavlovich Golts, student of V. A. Favorsky, academician of architecture, theater artist and graphic artist.

In 1939-1942 Nika Georgievna studied at the Moscow Secondary art school, in 1943-1950. - at the Moscow State Art Institute named after V. I. Surikov at the monumental department in the workshop of N. M. Chernyshev. Initially she was interested in fresco painting, but Chernyshev’s studio was closed (in 1949, along with a number of other “formalists”, he was fired from the Moscow State Art Institute), and she managed to express herself in this genre only once and later: she owns the frescoes in the building of the Natalia Children’s Musical Theater Sats in Moscow, including two panels based on sketches by her father Georgy Golts.

Since 1953 she worked in book and easel graphics. Books with illustrations by Nika Golts were published by the publishing houses “Children’s Literature”, “Soviet Artist”, “Soviet Russia”, “Russian Book”, “Pravda”, “Khudozhestvennaya Literatura”, “EXMO-Press” and others. Known for her illustrations of fairy tales and fantastic works (folklore, Hoffmann, Gogol, Perrault, Andersen, Odoevsky, Antony Pogorelsky, etc.)

Exhibitions

Canada, India, Denmark (1964); Yugoslavia (1968); Biennale in Bologna (Italy, 1971); Biennale in Italy (1973); "Book-75"; Exhibition of illustrators of works by the Brothers Grimm in Berlin (1985); Denmark (Aarhus, 1990; Vejle, 1993) together with Danish artists.

Awards

• Honored Artist of the Russian Federation (2000) - for services in the field of art

In 2006, Nika Georgievna Golts was awarded the Diploma of H.-K. Andersen International Children's Book Council (IBBY) for illustrations to the collection “The Big Book of Andersen's Best Fairy Tales.”