The Wildlife Conservation Center published a book by Alexander Oleksenko, ““Meeting any animal… Is Always a Miracle.” V.M. Smirin in Search of Himself and His Life’s Work.”
Russian animal painting of the 20th century is a powerful and original phenomenon, largely undiscovered.
One of the greatest masters of the tradition is Vladimir (Vadim) Moiseevich Smirin (1931-1989). The first book of the two-volume work tells about his childhood, youth, development as a zoologist and artist, and his teachers — B.V. Pestinsky, V.A. Vatagin, A.N. Formozov. Particular attention is paid to the birth of the grandiose idea of the Atlas of Mammals of Eastern Europe and Northern Asia based on life drawings. No one before Smirin had dared to undertake such a project and is unlikely to do so in the future.
The author of the book, Alexander Oleksenko, has been studying the work of V.M. Smirin and other masters of animalism for a quarter of a century and has developed an original idea of this tradition, according to which the basis of the work of its masters is the gift of involvement with nature and animals.
Before you is a study and at the same time a unique film, assembled into a whole from a mosaic of drawings, photographs, autographs of documents, fragments of memories of direct participants in the events. Most of the materials are published for the first time.
This book is part of one of the largest projects on animalistic graphics of the 20th century, the core of which is the multi-volume atlas by V.M. Smirin "Portraits of Animals of Northern Eurasia".
The first three volumes have been published:
"Pinnipeds" (2010) https://www.biodiversity.ru/publications/books/ecoeducation/Smirin_Pinnipeds_2010_sm.pdf
"Predatory" (2011) https://www.biodiversity.ru/publications/books/ecoeducation/Smirin_Carnivores_2011_web.pdf
"Lagomorphs" (2018) https://www.biodiversity.ru/publications/books/ecoeducation/Smirin_Lagomorphs_2018_web.pdf
With the support of the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives, an electronic version of the book ""Meeting with every animal ... is always a miracle." V.M. Smirin in search of himself and his life's work" was created in 2023, which can be viewed and downloaded.
Page-by-page version https://www.biodiversity.ru/publications/books/ecoeducation/ALWAYS_MIRACLE_book_about_VM_Smirin_v1.pdf
Version with page spreads (the artists of the book claim that this is the best way to understand it as a whole). https://www.biodiversity.ru/publications/books/ecoeducation/ALWAYS_MIRACLE_book_about_VM_Smirin_v1_spreads.pdf
In the future, it is planned to release a printed version of the publication.
