Zair Azgur

Zair Azgur is a patriarch of Belarusian fine art, the author of numerous psychological portraits of cultural figures, scientists and workers, writers and poets, famous state and social leaders, philosophers and thinkers, revolutionaries and fighters for people's happiness in different countries and eras, heroes of the Great Patriotic War and the partisan movement. He is the author of the sculptural ensemble on Yakub Kolas Square and the composition "Glory to the fallen soldiers" on one of the faces of the Victory Monument in Minsk.

The future sculptor was born on January 15, 1908 in the village of Molchani, Senno District, Vitebsk Region. From his early childhood he was interested in painting and sculpture. His first teachers were woodcarver Yugan Glek and potter Pylyp Potapenko, who taught Azgur to mold figures of people and animals from clay and showed the beauty of traditional Belarusian clay toys. The turning point in the life of the sculptor was his study at the studio of painter and teacher Yudel Pan. Then he studied at Vitebsk Art College. Professional education Zair Isaakovich received in the Leningrad Higher and Kiev Art Institute, Tbilisi Academy of Arts.

Zair Azgur began his creative activity in Minsk in 1930. The young sculptor's talent was noticed at once. Already in the 1920s, he created sculptural portraits of Belarusian educators Francis Skorina, Vasiliy Tyapinsky and Belarusian writer Zmytrok Byadulya. In 1932-1933 he created portraits of Felix Dzerzhinsky, Alexander Myasnikov and Gracchus Babeff for the government house in Minsk. In the 1930s he also created a series of portraits of state and party leaders Grigory Orjonikidze, Josef Stalin, Elena Stasova, and cultural figures Larisa Aleksandrovskaya, Yakub Kolas, and Yanka Kupala. In 1938, the sculptor created portraits of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin. In 1940 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for his participation in the exhibition of works by Belarusian artists during the decade of Belarusian art in Moscow. In the same year he was accepted as a member of the Union of Artists.

During the Great Patriotic War, Zair Azgur exchanged the sculptor's chisel for the graphic artist's pencil and took part in the design of the poster-paper "Razdavim Fashistskoy Gadzinu". In 1942-1944 he worked at the Central Headquarters of Partisan Movement in Moscow, where he created a gallery of portraits of war heroes - Lev Dovator, Andrei Eremenko, Georgy Zhukov, Konstantin Rokossovsky and others.

In 1944 Azgur was awarded the title of People's Artist of the BSSR. Having returned to Minsk, he worked as the chief artist of the Government House.