{"id":1805,"date":"2020-07-18T11:31:30","date_gmt":"2020-07-18T11:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/?page_id=1805"},"modified":"2021-01-07T12:51:25","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T12:51:25","slug":"in-memory-of-victor-ryabinin","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/in-memory-of-victor-ryabinin\/","title":{"rendered":"In Memory of Victor Ryabinin"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Spirit of K\u00f6nigsberg<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Published: 18 July 2020 on the first anniversary of Victor Ryabinin’s death<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victor Ryabinin died on 18 July 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who knew him well, it has been a difficult 12 months. The first 12 months after someone dear passes away always is. There are so many occasions that memory will not let go of, everything becomes a commemorative anniversary of the last time, and it is virtually impossible not to fall victim to the \u2018this time last year\u2019 syndrome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the anniversary of Victor\u2019s death closed in, it has also been impossible not to fall under the insidious spell of that morbid countdown: viz, this time last year Victor had only four weeks left to live \u2026 It is a macabre thought is it not, that last 60 seconds of life ticking inexorably away and then nothing? Not just the physical man himself gone but, as Leonard Cohen so eloquently puts it, \u201cthat tangle of matter and ghost\u201d. A lifetime lost in a second. A unique loss of personality, thoughts, talent, experience, good nature, kindness, humanity. It is, indeed, a morbid thought, but as a friend of mine pragmatically said about death, \u201cWell, you can\u2019t stop it, can you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is nothing much longer than eternity, but notwithstanding in the past 12 months those of us who were fortunate enough to be counted among Victor\u2019s friends and those whom he taught and mentored have been just as busy preserving his memory as we have been cherishing it and missing him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Book celebrating Victor Ryabinin’s work<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As well as my blog, which is dedicated to Victor Ryabinin, to his artistic talent, to the magic that he found in and brought to K\u00f6nigsberg-Kaliningrad and to the man himself, one of Victor\u2019s closest friends, Marina Simkina, herself an artist, has been working with writer and journalist Boris Nisnevich to bring to fruition a book about the life and work of this remarkable man: a thematically related text with essays, personal recollections, interviews, letters and poems which taken together speak of the rich legacy that Victor has bequeathed in his paintings, assemblages, collages and diaries and, for those of us who knew him personally, in the light that his sincerity, goodwill, open nature and profound interest in everything he heard or saw brought into our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the first anniversary of Victor\u2019s death, I have added another article to the pages of my blog contributed by our friend Stanislov, whom Victor introduced us to shortly before he passed away<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catalogue of Victor Ryabinin’s work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Stas, as we know him, is actively involved in a project which will hopefully see the canon of Victor Ryabinin\u2019s artistic work and his collection of K\u00f6nigsberg \u2018relics\u2019 housed and displayed in a permanent exhibition here in Kaliningrad. He also hopes to catalogue Victor\u2019s work and produce a definitive version in print of the extraordinary talent of this man whose self-genre as K\u00f6nigsberg’s art-historian captured, celebrated and ultimately cast him as the spirit of the ruined city he had spent his life divining ~ the very Spirit of K\u00f6nigsberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victor Ryabinin\u2019s love affair with the interconnectivity of K\u00f6nigsberg\u2019s past and Kaliningrad\u2019s present, the surface paradox of two cultures hammered together in war but mysteriously wed by time and destiny, was as devotional as it was unconditional. For him, both transition and movement were seamless; it was the place itself that \u2018drew people in\u2019 as it had drawn him in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victor\u2019s childhood impressions and art-historian perspective surpassed that of mere academia ~ he lived and breathed K\u00f6nigsberg. It was not a lifestyle choice; it was made for him; it was predestined. The symbiotic relationship that he formed with this special, this unique place, as he called the K\u00f6nigsberg.-Kaliningrad continuum, continually reminded him that his soul existed in two cultures, both Russian and German, and as much as he enjoyed anywhere else he intuitively knew he belonged nowhere else. He could not precisely say why, \u2018I cannot explain this magic\u2019, but as a child of K\u00f6nigsberg\u2019s ruins he instinctively knew \u201cthis is my city\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His city, represented symbolically through the artistic fusion of his childhood memories, the interaction between Gothic ruins and Hoffman\u2019s Gothic fantasy, transcended time and place, engendering philosophical interpretations on a universal scale. His enduring belief in the insolubility of the past\u2019s effect on the present and of existence viewed as a fantastic web of interconnectivity may suggest that whilst he had a definite sense of place and his place in it, he was also a child of the universe, but if so he was a prodigy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In memory of Victor Ryabinin<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The oft-cited opinion of those who were close to him, that he exhibited an almost childlike fascination in everything new that he saw or heard, was not a slight on his character but a character trait to be envious of. For the majority of people, interest, as with every other human faculty, slips further and further away from us the older we become, but not so with Victor, who remained alert, fascinated, enthralled to the last. Even in the latter days of his life, when in hindsight, by recourse to photographs of that time, he appeared discernibly older and more frail, he never lost his curiosity, he never grew old as others grow old, giving up his zest for life only when life itself decided that the time had come for him to paint his last picture, make his last entry in his  pictorial diary and drink his last cognac with friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the shadow of death and even more desperately in its gloomy, memory-filled aftermath, we rake among the embers not of the life that has passed, the life that has been extinguished, but in what remains of our left-behind lives, in hope of consolation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But my consolation in Victor\u2019s death lies in the certain knowledge that whilst we grieve for ourselves, we have no real need to grieve for him, for he has returned to the self-same spot where it all began. He is a child again in the ruins of K\u00f6nigsberg. His spirit has gone home. He is now a part of that history which so fascinated and clung to him from the moment of his birth. It is my belief that it never let go; he was just given to us on loan; and he drew us into K\u00f6nigsberg as he himself had been drawn in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you do not believe me just listen to and read the testimonials of those who knew him and what they have to say ~ his students, friends and colleagues. Through their words and their impressions, they seek to understand the mystical aura with which Victor was endowed. We may never comprehend it entirely, but we share one thing in common which is a sense of pride and privilege that in this ephemeral but interconnected world it was fortunately predetermined that our paths should cross with his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shall miss him always, forget him never.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"In<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Victor Ryabinin died on 18 July 2020
Forever K\u00f6nigsberg<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Articles relating to Victor Ryabinin<\/strong>
Victor Ryabinin K\u00f6nigsberg Kaliningrad
<\/a>Victor Ryabinin Artist Historian<\/a>
Stanislav Konovalov ~ student and friend of Victor Ryabinin (K\u00f6nigsberg tour guide)<\/a>
<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9 2018-2021 Mick Hart. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Published: 17 December 2020 ~ Victor Ryabinin the Artist Born in K\u00f6nigsberg To coincide with what would have been Victor Ryabinin\u2019s 75th birthday, a book has been published which celebrates and commemorates his life and work. Conceived, supervised and edited by Kaliningrad artist Marina Simkina, daughter of\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0412 "K\u00d6NIGSBERG"","block_context":{"text":"K\u00d6NIGSBERG","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/category\/konigsberg\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Vit-Book-Cover-2-Rz.jpg?fit=1200%2C1036&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Vit-Book-Cover-2-Rz.jpg?fit=1200%2C1036&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Vit-Book-Cover-2-Rz.jpg?fit=1200%2C1036&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Vit-Book-Cover-2-Rz.jpg?fit=1200%2C1036&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Vit-Book-Cover-2-Rz.jpg?fit=1200%2C1036&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1991,"url":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/victor-ryabinins-headstone-konigsberg\/","url_meta":{"origin":1805,"position":1},"title":"Victor Ryabinin\u2019s Headstone K\u00f6nigsberg","author":"Captain Codpiece","date":"14 \u0430\u0432\u0433\u0443\u0441\u0442\u0430, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor\u2019s grave is adorned with a headstone befitting the artist and the man Published: 14 August 2020 Yesterday (Thursday 13 August 2020) a friend emailed a photograph to us of Victor Ryabinin\u2019s recently completed and erected headstone. I was expecting the headstone to incorporate a photographic likeness of Victor\u2019s face,\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0412 "K\u00d6NIGSBERG"","block_context":{"text":"K\u00d6NIGSBERG","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/category\/konigsberg\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Headstone-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Headstone-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Headstone-2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4175,"url":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/victor-ryabinin-a-word-with-him-after-his-death\/","url_meta":{"origin":1805,"position":2},"title":"Victor Ryabinin a word with him after his Death","author":"Captain Codpiece","date":"18 \u0438\u044e\u043b\u044f, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Published: 18 July 2021 ~ Victor Ryabinin a word with him after his Death On the second anniversary of Victor Ryabinin\u2019s death, I recall Victor saying of himself, \u201cI suppose you could call me a cheerful pessimist.\u201d His ironic self-assessment led me to the conclusion that if he could call\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0412 "K\u00d6NIGSBERG"","block_context":{"text":"K\u00d6NIGSBERG","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/category\/konigsberg\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Thoughts on the Death of Victor Ryabinin","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Surreal-face.jpg?fit=710%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Surreal-face.jpg?fit=710%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Surreal-face.jpg?fit=710%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Surreal-face.jpg?fit=710%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":957,"url":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/victor-ryabinin-konigsberg-kaliningrad\/","url_meta":{"origin":1805,"position":3},"title":"Victor Ryabinin K\u00f6nigsberg Kaliningrad","author":"Captain Codpiece","date":"17 \u0430\u043f\u0440\u0435\u043b\u044f, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Ryabinin the Spirit of K\u00f6nigsberg Victor Ryabinin K\u00f6nigsberg Kaliningrad by Mick Hart Revised 18 July 2024 | First published: 17 April 2020 I first met Victor Ryabinin in the spring of 2001. A friend of my wife\u2019s, knowing how much my wife liked art and how fascinated I was\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0412 "K\u00d6NIGSBERG"","block_context":{"text":"K\u00d6NIGSBERG","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/category\/konigsberg\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Victor Ryabinin K\u00f6nigsberg Kaliningrad","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/DSCN5874-Copy-2-scaled.jpg?fit=791%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/DSCN5874-Copy-2-scaled.jpg?fit=791%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/DSCN5874-Copy-2-scaled.jpg?fit=791%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/DSCN5874-Copy-2-scaled.jpg?fit=791%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1071,"url":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/victor-ryabinin-konigsberg-artist-historian\/","url_meta":{"origin":1805,"position":4},"title":"Victor Ryabinin K\u00f6nigsberg Artist-Historian","author":"Captain Codpiece","date":"22 \u0430\u043f\u0440\u0435\u043b\u044f, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"An artist who can hear angels speak A biographical essay on the life, 'nostalgic aesthetics' and philosophy of Victor Ryabinin of K\u00f6nigsberg, by Boris Nisnevich \"When I wrote the draft to this article, I wrote that I believe there is no equal to him in Kaliningrad \u2014 I still believe\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0412 "Kaliningrad: Mick Hart's Diary"","block_context":{"text":"Kaliningrad: Mick Hart's Diary","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/category\/kaliningrad-mick-harts-diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Murr-USE-Resized-3.jpg?fit=1200%2C648&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Murr-USE-Resized-3.jpg?fit=1200%2C648&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Murr-USE-Resized-3.jpg?fit=1200%2C648&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Murr-USE-Resized-3.jpg?fit=1200%2C648&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Murr-USE-Resized-3.jpg?fit=1200%2C648&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1724,"url":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/personal-tour-guide-kaliningrad\/","url_meta":{"origin":1805,"position":5},"title":"Personal Tour Guide Kaliningrad","author":"Captain Codpiece","date":"16 \u0438\u044e\u043b\u044f, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Stanislav Konovalov ~ student and friend of Victor Ryabinin Stanislav Konovalov ~ Stas ~ passed away in November 2020 from post-operative complications whilst undergoing hospital treatment. We salute him for the memories he has bequeathed us and grieve for those that would have been had death not suddenly deprived us\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0412 "K\u00d6NIGSBERG"","block_context":{"text":"K\u00d6NIGSBERG","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/category\/konigsberg\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Stas-painting-Rz.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Stas-painting-Rz.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Stas-painting-Rz.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Stas-painting-Rz.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Stas-painting-Rz.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}