to himself our humane laws for the most part used in the form of Emery: that it is not prescribed in Moscow, it is not discharged from Gori, then taken into the army with a heart defect, it did not give a workshop, when all was legally formalized. In the end, blunt force barracks orders wore this talented artist and utterly hammered into the ground. Draconian conditions for survival not for everyone under force, but Dima was a man seriously ill.
Sculptor Lazarus Gadayev told me about the first appearance of Tomaeva in Moscow led to it stalwart Ossetian flush with apricot on cheeks, wearing a hat, which in Russian is not know a word.
At one time, Dima worked at a vocational school, taught Civil engineering: his hands were gold, the clutch so he knew "that surprised the experienced masters. Then he got a job plumber, ordered, got a room. Gadayev made Dima from the hand written "Iron Stream" Serafimovich. After that Dima was properly speak and write in Russian. Joined the army, was released after six months due to heart disease.
He helped Gadaev in the studio and once in the absence of self-hewed in the rock composition.
From about 1973 to 1989 Dima Tomaev professionally worked in sculpture, was admitted to the Union of artists, exhibited in Tbilisi and Moscow. He has created about one hundred works, mainly in stone. He worked a lot, most of the work was done in Gori, near Moscow, in Kupavna, in the country at Tiffany's, Dima built himself a beautiful studio, the sculptor for a tiny but very cozy. There he was cutting wood. The shop burned down, which further undermined his health.
Our criticism often examines the artist's work apart from his human biography. But a man's life in art is quality. This was plainly says Boris Pasternak in a letter. "The peculiarity and uniqueness of perception of the lyric - wrote Pasternak - turning verbs into nouns, in the maelstrom of qualities."
If we talk about the work of Dima Tomaeva, his biography in the works comes through very clearly. Ossetians by nationality, he was born and raised in the forests and mountains. They were outside, inside and above it. Wood and stone were companions of his childhood. He is with them not only coexisted but also collaborated. It is no accident became a sculptor Dima - this is some kind of genetic pattern.
The Ossetians have long settled in the northern and southern slopes of the Caucasus Mountains. They were endowed with such properties are nature, which in places of low-lying ever stay. The ancient ancestors of the Ossetians, the Alans, distinguished by high notions of honor and dignity, people were proud and independent and, in turn, resemble their ancestors - Scythian and Sarmatian. And Dima Thomas was a worthy successor to their grandfathers and great grandfathers. Dima ancestors were shepherds, hunters, and masons. These were people uhvatistye, mighty. They moved a rock and the heavy trunks, built houses, cultivated the soil. They were able to look life right in the eye.
The majestic beauty of the mountains, the goodness and wisdom of the people brought Dima, shaped his mind and thoughts. Happy in his talent of the sculptor, he created a work of deep, sincere, bearing the indelible stamp of goodness and national identity.
Among the main advantages of Dima Tomaeva sculptures, which are opened immediately, I would call a special warmth radiating from the inside, the sincerity and piety of a certain stone. His sculptures and tragic kind, gentle and cheerful, focused and simple.
He has no detachment in the works: each image is concrete and fission. This is achieved by means of the most common in the arsenal of any sculptor - the rhythmic interaction of verticals, clarity of the silhouette, the lack of small-developed parts.
Most form in the works Tomaeva always plastic, it sticks out, not sticks, like a bottle from his inside pocket.
Tomaev tends to expressive and concise plastic. He cherishes its original sense and does not lose it in a purely artisan works. He sculpts in stone, and cuts, carves wood figures of the people he knows and loves. It's old men and women, loggers and shepherds, and miners lineman.
"Making Cheese," "Over the water," "The Cemetery", "Love," "Self Portrait" - stone, wood and limestone. And everywhere the form of tangible, concrete, as the ancient Gothic arch or niche portal. No heroes of psevdomonumentalnosti. Once Neizvestny taught me to recognize the monumental: You see this tiny work, pre ¬ set themselves that this great monument. Sustain this form of increase? So, the thing took place. Now take our giant monuments, reduced mentally to statues that remain? A lump of shit - no form, no content, no plastics, no thought ...
Dima in the works there is always an experience, a strong feeling, he talks to his characters, their lives care. His sculptures create a feeling of hot form, only that the created. A powerful expression in the sculptures combine Tomaeva with acute expressiveness. This combination of a sculptor may be natural in one case only, when there is a strong internal combustion. The cold shower is capable of creating only the effect, gestures, cold virtuosity. Tomaev tends to separate the amount of space, that is, as it pulls out from the surrounding material world his own, personal, and began work on its artistic embodiment. For him, everything is important in sculpture: an epic sound, visual interpretation of the character, the search for the internal dynamics, expression, silhouette, image refinement to the character.
Here is his small size track, "Love." It is made of red stone in 1979. The two standing figures parallel boys and girls, prilnuvshie to each other. As if the ordinary people, ordinary sense, familiar emotions, a theme familiar to art is not new. But Dima Tomaeva people suddenly begin to be perceived as divine beings, as meek angel. The whole composition emits a stream of light, it produces feelings of sadness and aching and elegiac mood. Remember the great Leonardo admonition: do a figure with such a gesture to the audience could easily identify the state of her soul. Tom, probably did not know these words, but his spirit and reverent attitude to his work, talent helped make plastic feeling of eternity, to rise above chance, close to the ideal.
The photographer Leo Melekhov at my request, went home Tomaeva, in Gori, and brought me a photo with tomaevskih work. Inexhaustible vitality, freshness, contemporary sound, originality characteristic of these works of Dmitri Tomaeva. They are made by the artist, who lives in harmony with the environment. Tranquility and majesty, touching purity and poetry, which is in many Tomaeva, cause in my heart warm response. It is true that quite often in the form of the work of Dima catch myself thinking that in them lives melancholy tone, it dominates. Or is it seems to me, since I saw him as a dear person and grieving, losing a friend. Poor Dima, his whole life he wanted to live among good people, work, raise a family. And he had to prove, convince, and to struggle for existence, for survival. It tasted bitter end to this senseless struggle and realized that in our country, in addition to talent and conscience of the artist must have strong nerves, and oxen, patience and endurance of a camel. As they say, compacted Sivko steep hill.
Being himself a man of solid, volumes, and preserved in the works of extraordinary integrity. He was looking for in a man the most characteristic and come to understand the large form. He understood the main thing in sculpture - sculpture constructive basis, and from there take the path of the most faithful, seeking generality of the language, the concentration of imaginative content, dynamic, living form.
Once upon a time in ancient times, man animated all around you - animals, sky, sea, earth and sun. He embodied it in the primitive sculptures, which are seen as idols. If you open the dictionary Dahl on the word "idol", then read something surprising: "The idols of the Greeks were elegant marble statues, idols of the Kalmyks, the Chinese - cast brass freaks Samoyed idols - carved wooden ball-sible,,," Ossetian idols Tomaeva full of poetry , metaphorical, the firstborn of the human senses. They are elegant and bear the native people's moral principle. I am sure that this is ensured longevity of the sculptural heritage left by the talented sculptor Dmitry volume.
Somehow I was able to observe, as volumes molded playground sculpture commissioned by the plant. Dima been looking for convincing a concise form structures, but when he found, began to think about the details and ornaments. He molded the little animals, came up with curly handles and sliding trolley. Dima has worked carefully and conscientiously. Many times all the tinkering. And in the eyes of his work became more meaningful, orderly, beautiful. The artist told me that children should enjoy the site, feel good and free. And his eyes shone with radiant joy is truly child, when the Arts Council, without a single amendment accepted the job. Andrew Marz and Victor Dumanian - experienced sculptors Moscow - immediately supported the work of Tomaeva.
He was always keenly scrutinized the work of other artists were a sculpture Pologova, Najafov, Berlin, Gadayev, Soskieva or painting Badayev, Kononenko, Kocheyshvili, graphics Gannushkina, pictures Tischler: living artists who worked there, he was much closer than the classics. He saw other people's art is hot, even with some jealousy, admiration, experienced. But no one imitated, and worked as God put per capita. Creative independence Tomaeva evolved itself in the process of labor. So it works its face, charming sincerity. Many of them in detail, perfect. Together they form an artistic whole, indivisible shaped the world.
He will live. Will the exhibition Dmitry Tomaeva, write about it, will be released album. To the great sorrow, Dima Tomaev all this is no longer sees.