Major monumental works
During his work, Yuri completed five large monumental projects:
- Interior design of the Central Railway Ticket Offices of the Metropol Hotel in Moscow – work “Map of the Railways of the USSR and Europe” (iron, copper, 1965).
- Interior design of the sports hall of the Palace of Pioneers in the city of Vorkuta (Komi) – work “Sports Victory” (relief, mosaic, 1967).
- Design of the ramp of the Monument in honor of the discovery of a diamond deposit at the entrance to the city of Mirny (relief, mosaic, 1970, Sakha).
- Mosaic panel“ Spring of Turkmenistan “ on the building of the Palace of Culture of the builders of the Karakum Canal in the city of Mary (mosaic, 1974, Turkmenistan).
- Decoration of the foyer of the children’s complex of the Palace of Culture of the builders of the Karakum Canal in the city of Mary (relief, mosaic, 1975, Turkmenistan).
“For the creation of a decorative map for the Central Railway Ticket Offices,” Yuri was awarded a diploma from the Moscow branch of the Art Fund of the RSFSR in 1965.
Wind Rose.
Fragment of the Map of Railways of the USSR and Europe in the Central Railway Ticket Office, Metropol Hotel, Moscow. 1965.
In 1967, when designing the sports hall of the Palace of Pioneers in Vorkuta, Yuri was the first in the USSR to use a combination of relief and mosaic.
The monument in honor of the discovery of a diamond deposit in the city of Mirny was recognized as the best work of 1970; its photographs were published in the newspapers: “Soviet Culture” (16.03.1972), “Literary Newspaper” (03.12.1972), “Arkhitektura” (12.12.1976), in the magazine “Tvorchestvo” (No. 6, 1974). Art critics highly praised my father. Thus, N. V. Voronov in his article “Monument in Mirny” for the magazine “Decorative Art in the USSR” (1974) noted:
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B.Y. Kafengauz
“The work of E. Ermolaev and Y. Kafengauz seems interesting, truly innovative and original.”
“Yu. went for a very bold and successful experiment. The author turned the legendary story of the discovery of Yakut diamonds into an elegant fantasy tale, presented it in relief, and in color and mosaic. He used color surprisingly bravely – one lip is blue, the other is red, the nose is white, the cheeks are yellow, the eyes are blue-black with sparkles, and the cheekbones are the color of concrete. The result is a conventional portrait of a Yakut woman. And all this is still in relief, and sometimes quite significant – up to 35 cm in height. Mosaic in relation to relief is used in a variety of ways, often unexpectedly and in places even playfully. It acts as a color, then as a shadow, giving volume to an object, then as a contour separating it from a neighboring figure or space, and sometimes as an indicator of the structure of its relief, its main lines and their turns, forming forms that convey movement.
The main material, concrete, is used just as masterfully and interestingly: with granite chips it acts as a color, as a shadow, and sometimes as a background against which the northern lights flare up or the sparkle of diamonds flares up.”
“The Moscow Decorative and Design Art Workshop (KDOI) can be proud that the artists working here have solved the task facing them so freshly, sincerely and wittily.” “What is especially valuable is that this monument is not only in honor of people, but also for people.” “Here all the invisible boundaries that often separate art from the viewer are removed, and it lives in direct communication with those for whom it is intended.”
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Monument commemorating the discovery of the diamond deposit.
Mirny, Yakutia.
Architect: E. Ermolaev. Engineer: E. Temnikov. 1970.
In the M. L. Terekhovich’s monograph “Moscow Monumentalists” (1985), Yuri is represented by the work “Monument in Honor of the Discovery of the Yakut Diamond Deposit”.
Photos of the Palace of Culture in the regional center of Turkmenistan were published in all the central newspapers and magazines of those years: Pravda (06/03/1974), Izvestia (06/24/1974), Architecture (11/03/1974), Soviet Culture (05/31/1977).
The history of the design of the Palace of Culture in Mary is interesting and funny, when the project underwent significant changes during the artist’s visit to the customer. The initial sketch by Yuri presented the viewer with a naked woman floating in the air with a flowing shock of hair. Now one can only be amazed that a similar project for Turkmenistan was approved by the Art Council in Moscow, and the artist received a business trip to coordinate the sketch with the customer. Meanwhile, everything was exactly like that!
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B.Y. Kafengauz
From Turkmenistan, Dad called home extremely worried. He said that he was being received very warmly, and the customer “liked everything.” There was just one “but!” He would have to stay here for an indefinite period of time to “dress the girl.” The artist was indeed warmly received in Mary: they gave him a room to work in, found a model, brought women’s national clothing and headdresses, gave him green tea to drink and watermelons to eat. They explained to him that a Turkmen woman’s hair is always braided, and there must be two braids. Moreover, Turkmen girls wear their braids in front on their chest, while married women throw them behind their backs. And so Dad stayed in Mary to “dress” his Turkmen woman and “braid” her hair. The customer refused to let the artist go to Moscow until the sketch was completely reworked, and in reality, painted anew.
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Having chosen a blue background for his work, smoothly turning into the color of the blue cloudless sky above the Palace of Culture, Y. Kafengauz achieved the visual effect of expanding the boundaries of the mural. As a result, his beautiful Turkmen woman literally hovers in the endless blue of the Turkmen sky. Only the artist did his own thing with the braids: he let one go forward and threw the other back.
Spring of Turkmenia. Mosaic panel on the façade of the Palace of Culture of the Hydrotechnical Builders of the Karakum Canal, Mary, Turkmenistan. 1975.
Two works by Yuri : a mosaic on the ramp of the Monument to the Discoverers of Diamond Deposits in Mirny (architect E. P. Ermolaev) and a mosaic panel “Spring of Turkmenistan” on the end of the Palace of Culture of Karakumhydrostroy in the city of Mary (architect G. S. Ushaev ) were among the best monumental compositions of their time, and their photographs occupy a well-deserved place in the fundamental work of V. P. Tolstoy – the album “Monumental Art of the USSR” (1978).
