Painter. Full member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1988). People's Artist of the USSR (1988). Laureate of USSR State Prizes (1984). Chairman of the Board of the Union of Artists of Russia in 1987 - 2009, since 2009 - Honorary Chairman, Professor of the V.I. Surikov Moscow Art Institute since 1986.
Born May 5, 1928 in the village Sorokopenie of the Tver province. Father - Sidorov Mikhail Yakovlevich. Mother - Sidorova Natalia Grigoryevna.
Parents Valentin Sidorov’s ancestors lived in Sorokopenia, his mother was from the village of Korovino, located on the other side of the Volga. His great-grandfather and great-grandmother were peasants of Prince G.G. Gagarin - vice-president of the Imperial Academy of Arts (great-grandmother was the nurse of the children of the prince). Great-grandfather participated in the Russian-Turkish war, worked for many years as a carrier on the Volga, and in winter as a coachman. He had a wonderful voice - there was no better songwriter in the area. The artist’s grandfather was an excellent woodcarver.
In his native Shrike, Valentin Sidorov spent the first 8 years of his life. In 1936, the family moved to Moscow. Although the boy studied at a Moscow school and only came to his grandmother for the summer, the village was dearer to him than the city. Discreet sincere Russian nature, stable peasant life became the environment that nurtured the artist, largely determined his personality and still nourishes his work.
Valentine began to draw early. In Moscow, he lived in the same house with the famous actor of the Maly Theater A. Ostuzhev. It remained in the artist’s memory as Alexander Alekseevich, walking through the courtyard, approached him more than once when he was drawing, and uttered in his beautiful “Ostuzhevsky” voice: “Fine ... wonderful ... you will be an artist ...” This word , still not entirely clear and mysterious, excitedly excited.
For the first time, Valentine felt real joy from drawing when he was 10 years old. He was sick that summer, spent a lot of time in the hospital. Valentine really missed the village, remembered his peers ... That's when he began to draw. He drew and signed: “Khvatkovo”, “Lesnikovo”, “Turavka”, etc. “Drawing drowned the longing for the village life, and the wonderful feeling was born that you can draw your favorite places and they will always be with you,” recalls Valentin Mikhailovich. So for the first time the joy of creativity came.
The Great Patriotic War found Sidorov in Korovin. Then he was 13 years old. Everything collapsed at once. The childhood has ended. While studying at a rural school in Yuryev-Maiden, he began working on a collective farm.
The Nazis did not reach Korovino.
And when they were thrown away from Moscow, Valentine and his mother returned home on foot. Once in Moscow, he first went to the House of Pioneers, which he began to visit before the war.
Craving for drawing grew. In the Pioneer House, the wonderful circle was led by a wonderful teacher and educator Alexander Mikhailovich Mikhailov. He immediately drew attention to a capable, diligent student, showed his work to teachers of the Moscow secondary art school (then a branch remained in Moscow, the school itself was evacuated to Bashkiria). And they accepted him.
At the art school, Sidorov studied with particular pleasure. His main teacher was Mikhail Vladimirovich Dobroserdov - a modest, laconic man, a serious, deep artist who taught his students to write only what you love, you know what the soul reaches for. For the boy, his village was the most dear. And he wrote arable land, lunch in the field, haymaking, the outskirts of Korovin. "Evening. Outskirts of Korovin ”(1947) - a humpbacked street with silhouettes of log huts and reflections of a golden glow in the windows. Or the winter landscape “Our house in the snowdrifts” (1945) - the snow covered the road, the house is on the roof, you can see only a slightly thawed window and a horse standing on the porch ...
In 1948, Sidorov entered the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I.E. Repin in Leningrad, where he studied under P. Belousov, R. Frents, I. Stepashkin. Many Leningrad museums gave him a kind of school. Sidorov worked hard.
In 1952, he transferred to the Moscow State Art Institute named after V.I. Surikov. Here his teachers were
P.I. Kotov, V.G. Tsyplakov and F.P. Reshetnikov.
In 1952, in the summer, in Korovin, Sidorov painted the landscape “At noon. Korovino ”, which was shown at the first exhibition of young artists in Moscow. The sun floods with golden light the street where the artist lived since childhood, at home, on the road, on a meadow ...
As a student, Sidorov traveled to Vetluga, to Lake Svetloyar, which is associated with a wonderful legend about the city of Kitezh. This trip left a mark in the artist’s soul. And not only because rare places of beauty caused a desire to work. Trips to Vetluga strengthened the artist’s interest in the Russian national character, aroused special respect for the person working on the ground.
After graduating from the institute (his diploma work, which was led by F. Reshetnikov, was the picture “The Future Tractor Driver”) in 1954, Sidorov left for Korovino. Here he lived for about a year and a half, wrote many sketches (“The First Snow”, “Morning in the Hut”, “Grandmother's Tales”, etc.), searched for himself, his theme. The Korovinsky period played a large role in Sidorov’s work, he saw “his world in simple stories, his nature, touched her soul, a poetic perception of the world was born in him”.
In Korovin, Sidorov made sketches, thinking about future paintings, dreamed of participating in a large exhibition, preparing for the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution. Gathering a stack of his sketches, Valentin Mikhailovich went to Moscow to show the exhibition committee everything that he thought he could and wanted to write. He presented sketches of the paintings “May Rain”, “The Thunderstorm Passed”, “Under the August Dew” and several others. The exhibition stopped at the sketch "May Rain".
In 1956, to work on the painting "May Rain" Sidorov was invited to go to the house of creativity "Academic Dacha".
... A corner of a village street. The May rain is drumming on the leaves, on the grass, on the outstretched palms of the girls who climbed onto a bench protected from the rain by the eaves of the roof ... The motif of the picture is blessed with its poetic strength, clear and bright, childishly joyful perception of life. The desire to accurately recreate the visible world, the admiration for everything that opens to the eye, the sense of poetry of everyday life, the freshness of perception, emotional excitement - the features inherent in this canvas. The painting was exhibited in 1957 and was among those works of the exhibition that brought a fresh stream to the art of that time.
The affirmation of life itself as a high philosophical category, characteristic of all future work of Sidorov, was announced here. It is no coincidence that the painting "May Rain" was immediately remembered by the audience; she said that an artist came to art with his theme, his world. This was confirmed when one after another his works appeared - “The Storm Passed” (1957–1959), “May Day. On the dam "(1958-1960)," March. They drove the ice ”(1958),“ From the Mountains Water ”(1958),“ Voiced Autumn ”(1961), which are distinguished by movement, dynamics, and a rapid change of mood in nature. In these works, everyday life is combined with an enthusiastic attitude towards life and landscape.
Since the early 1960s, new trends have emerged in Sidorov’s art. Stormy enthusiasm gave way to a more calm, in-depth, philosophical attitude to life. In 1962, he paints a picture “On Warm Ground”. She attracted attention not with overwhelming enthusiasm for life, but with depth, restraint, wise human soulfulness. Maybe here for the first time that organic connection of man and nature was found, to which the artist was so eager and which would become a hallmark of his work. Labor on earth is the main theme of Sidorov’s work in the first half of the 1960s (“Under the August Dew”, 1962; “Under the Apple Tree”, 1962; “Spring Garden”, 1964; “The First Crown”, 1964; “August”, 1964) . The paintings “Spring Garden” and “First Crown” were exhibited at the second exhibition “Soviet Russia” in 1965.
Sidorov relies on the tradition of poetic depiction of peasant labor in Russian art. On his canvases rarely seen modern technology. He is interested in the primordial peasant labor coming from grandfathers and great-grandfathers, the labor that Russia has lived for centuries.
More than once in these years the artist returns with thoughts to the past war. Her echoes are embodied in the paintings "First Crown" and "Clear Day." June 22nd ”- a work begun at the Academic Dacha, but completed and exhibited only in 1977.
In 1960, Sidorov accepted the artistic direction of the "Academic Dacha", which lasted about 6 years. Taught others. I studied myself. Worked a lot.
In the spring of 1960, at the "Academic Dacha" Sidorov created a series of paintings dedicated to the April time: "April", "April. Ropes "," April. To school ”, in which he developed the principle of an organic connection between man and nature, continuing plein air searches, enriching his palette, revealing the beauty of the world around him in a seemingly simple one.
At the "Academic Dacha" the artist found himself, found his circle of themes and images. The nature of the "Academic Dacha" was brought to life and many of its so-called "clean" landscapes, although some of them were painted later, in the late 1960s. Winter landscapes - “Snow is falling” (1964), “November” or “White snow” (1964), “Versts” (1964), “Zimka” (1964), “Melting” (1964), “Alder” (1964) , “Early Snow” (1965), “Winter” (1969) - testify to the masterly possession of tonal painting, they are permeated with subtle musicality, lyricism, an understanding of the poetry of Russian winter. With all the variety of motives, with all the differences in the emotional and picturesque palette, they are associated with meditation on life. In spring landscapes - “The Beginning of Spring” (1965), “The Last Snow” (1969) - the artist’s desire for a generalized image, for harmony, manifested itself with special strength. The artist also writes autumn motifs - “Generous Autumn” (1969), where the landscape with baskets of apples standing near the house attracts with its colorful autumn palette, “Birdhouses Deserted” (1969), touching the sad autumn desert.
Valentin Sidorov - master of the part; usually, with one unmistakably found detail, he seeks to reveal the essence of the image - like that islet of snow that personifies the end of winter in the landscape of “Last Snow”. Sidorov loves to vary close motives, finding new details, new emotional nuances. So, “Evening. Quiet. The snow is melting ”(1969) is in many ways close to the painting“ The Last Snow ”, etc.
A few kilometers from the "Academic Dacha" is the village of Podol, which has long attracted the artist's attention to the naturalness of rural life. He constantly went here to write studies. Then for many years he came to Podil, lived and worked in an old school that was empty in the summer (now the artist has his own workshop, although the whole Podil can be called his original workshop). Hem determined all the subsequent work of Sidorov.
Moving to Podil in 1966 contributed to the creative take-off of the artist. Sidorov writes in these years with particular joy. He achieves mastery in which opportunities become much wider. Good luck comes for luck - “Swing” (1967), “Holiday” (1967), “Time for a cloudless sky” (1969), “Day goes out” (1968–1969), “The thunderstorms” (1968) died.
The end of the 1960s was marked in the work of Valentin Sidorov by further comprehension of the subtle lyrical moods in nature and the desire to achieve an even deeper relationship between nature and the fate of people. The artist strives for greater associativity, for more psychologism. He chooses such subjects where the life of man and nature, in addition to a purely emotional community, also has other philosophical connections.
At this time, the artist turned to the creation of large multi-figure paintings on subjects related to the first years of Soviet power in the village (Sowers, 1968; Mir, 1970). The works “It Is Time for a Cloudless Sky” (1969), “Last Snow” (1969), “Morning” (1969), “The Day Goes Out” (1968–1969), and “The World” (1970) in 1972 bring Sidorov a silver medal from the Academy of Arts USSR.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Sidorov worked hard and fruitfully. In the artist’s soul, there is a desire for a generalized image of the Motherland, conveying its beauty and grandeur, for an image that can become its symbol. In 1972, he sets up the triptych “My Homeland” - an epic tale about the greatness of the Homeland. The triptych includes landscapes “Hem”, representing Russia, “Dalnye Zelentsy” - the pristine silence of the North and “Blue Pamir” - majestic ranges of the southern mountains.
The artist’s trips to the North, the Pamirs, abroad evoked an even stronger desire to write Russia, its simple and sincere beauty, and helped her to feel and understand it more sharply. “The first green. Pink horse ”(1970),“ Path ”(1970),“ Birch trees by the road ”(1973),“ Autumn leaves ”(1970),“ Spring clouds ”(1973) - all these landscapes speak about new facets of Valentin Sidorov's work. He begins to pay special attention to motives with a wide open horizon, spreading out into the distance, which allows us to give a broader picture of Russia and to reveal its song. Among such landscapes are “Birds to the South” (1971), “Egoriev Day” (1975), “Pritulikha” (1971–1972), “October” (1973), “Stormy Day. Oats Rings ”(1975) and others. In them, the artist achieves a synthesis of the objective being of nature and of those thoughts and feelings that it wakes up in the human soul. Valentin Mikhailovich pays special attention to the names of his paintings, which always differ in depth, poetic and philosophical sound.
By the 1970s V.M. Sidorov took one of the leading places in the modern lyrical landscape.
In 1974, for the series of paintings "My Homeland" (1972-1973) he was awarded the State Prize of the RSFSR named after I.E. Repin.
In Podil, the artist opened up the possibility of expressing new facets of life - hence the birth of landscape cycles, a fundamentally new genre in his work.
The North impressed Sidorov with its pristine nature, a sense of eternity. The very names “Land's End”, “North, North”, “Where the Sun Does Not Set”, “Keepers of Silence” (all 1972) speak of the magical power of the North that the artist encountered.
A cycle of landscapes, united by the theme of haymaking, has taken shape. Since childhood, who loved this time in the village, Sidorov captured the most varied states of nature in the days of hayfields: “Hayfields morning” (1974), “Hayfields” (1976), “Noon” (1975), “July evening” (1975), “Haymaking” (1975), “Blue evening above the fields” (1976), “Thunderstorm is coming” (1980), “Heavy carts creak” (1995) and others. The top of the cycle is the picture “Evening. Hay was removed ”(1988–1992), which the artist dedicated to his parents. In this cycle there is a rare and difficult to achieve sensation of significance: everything breathes peace, humanity, kindness.
For many years, the artist was worried about the theme of the bell, the same bell that for centuries had been set in Russia in the villages by the road, the bell that called during the disaster during the disaster, in the evening, in the war. In 1971, Sidorov painted the landscape “Early Hour” with a sleeping village street that goes into the distance and a bell in the foreground. In the picture “At Dawn” (1975), the bell is no longer just present, it is important in composition, it evokes associations, emphasizes silence, creating a feeling of its fragility. In the film “The Road and the Bell” (1975), the role of the bell increases even more. Gradually, the theme of the bell in the minds of the artist more and more took on the significance of fate, fate (The Bell, 1975). These landscapes carry the breath of time, history, they are penetrated by philosophical lyrics.
In the 1970s, Sidorov was working on a cycle that could be called Destiny of the House. The artist subtly senses the fates of houses and their human lives, makes the viewer feel the passage of time: “The house is empty” (1971), “The winds blow” (1971), “The house with blue platbands” (1974), “On Saturday” (1974) , “Hometown” (1975), “May Twilight” (1977) and others. Among the paintings of the series “Destiny of the House”, the appearance of the painting “Victory Day” (1975), in which the theme of the house sounded especially deeply and on a large scale, is natural. Here, the house is perceived as a symbol of the Motherland - it is a native home, a native threshold, with the memory of which they went to the front, went into battle. The painting “Victory Day” was first shown at the All-Russian, then at the All-Union exhibitions, exhibited in other cities of the country and abroad - in Berlin, Paris, Sofia, Tunisia. And everywhere she found a lively response in the hearts of people.
The theme of childhood, passing through all the artist’s work, was continued by the cycle of landscapes “Roads of childhood”: “Birch Wind” (1973–1979), “Near Old Sheds” (1975), “Hide and Seek” (1975), “My School” (1977) , “Morning on the Hem” (1977), “Roads of Childhood” (1977), “Where the Dubrovka River Comes from” (1980–1981). For this cycle in 1984 V.M. Sidorov was awarded the USSR State Prize.
In 1996, for the paintings of 1993-1995, "Dedicated to the Defenders of the Fatherland", "At Home", "Clear Day. June 22nd, "Quiet My Homeland"
V.M. Sidorov was awarded the gold medal of the Russian Academy of Arts, and a year later he became a laureate of the State Prize of Russia for the series of paintings "Quiet My Homeland": "July Evening" (1994), "Quiet My Homeland" (1994-1995), "Haymaking Morning "(1995)," Spring. High Heaven ”(1990–1996).
In 1997, V.M. Sidorov turns to the theater in his work, becoming the art director of the ballet “A Song about the Merchant Kalashnikov” (music
V. Kazenin) at the Omsk Opera and Ballet Theater.
Valentin Sidorov is an artist of a pronounced national character. His work is addressed to the Homeland, Russia and is connected with it with all its deepest threads, it outgrows the framework of only a village theme, rising to a great universal sound. Sidorov is a Russian artist in his worldview, worldview. The master of the “inspired landscape”, for many years of V.M. Sidorov created an extraordinary collection of works, landscapes, an original chronicle about the life of nature, its eternal cycle, its original and inextricable ties with man.
Since 1951, Valentin Mikhailovich has been constantly participating in city, regional, All-Russian and All-Union art exhibitions, as well as many exhibitions of Russian fine art abroad. His works are stored in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, art museums and private collections in Russia and abroad. Until 2003, Valentin Mikhailovich did not have a single solo exhibition. The first took place in the city of Minsk (Belarus) at the Museum of Fine Arts. It was called “On Warm Ground” by the name of one of his paintings, which was, as it were, an epigraph to the artist’s work. The exhibition was widely covered by the media. Then the exhibitions were held in the cities of Mogilev, Kiev, Bishkek, Tashkent, Samarkand, Yerevan, Alma-Ata, Lipetsk, Ryazan, Saransk, Omsk. In 2007, an exposition is being prepared in Kemerovo, Irkutsk, and then in Moscow. The former union republics very warmly received the artist, and in each city one of the works presented by him remained.
In 2000, Valentin Mikhailovich also participated in the exhibition “Your Name”, organized for the 2000th anniversary of the Nativity of Christ at the Central House of Artists in Moscow. In 2003, he participated in the exhibition of Russian artists “Russia-10”, which is held every five years, and in 2005, in the exhibition dedicated to the defenders of the fatherland, “Victory - 60 Years”. In 2006, Vologda, Orel and Vyatka hosted a large exhibition of Russian artists “The Image of the Motherland”, where the artist's works were presented.
In 2005 and 2006, art exhibitions of V.M. Sidorova, together with his Chinese and Korean students in the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai (China), Seoul (South Korea).
By 2007, an academic exhibition is being prepared in the Manege.
Since the mid-1990s V.M. Sidorov is the president of the International Confederation of the Union of Artists of the CIS countries. Participates in the activities of the World Russian National Council, the Forum of cultural figures of the CIS countries. He is the Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the Award of the Golden Pushkin Medal "For Contribution to Culture and Art", which is awarded in Russia and abroad.
He is the author of the book “The Land of Inspiration” (1984), the story “Burn, Burn Clear” (2001), a series of stories about artists in the magazine “Museum World”.
V.M. Sidorov - People's Artist of the USSR (1988) and the RSFSR (1979), People's Artist of Ukraine (2004), since 1988 - full member, member of the Presidium of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (since 1992, Russian Academy of Arts), full member of the Academy of Arts of Kyrgyzstan (1998) , professor (1996). Honorary Member of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan (2004). In 1972-1985 - Secretary of the Board, in 1985-1987 - 1st Secretary of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR. Since 1987 - Chairman of the Board of the Union of Artists of Russia.
Valentin Mikhailovich - laureate of State Prizes of the USSR, RSFSR, RF and Mordovia (2005), laureate of the International Prize named after M.A. Sholokhov (2000), laureate of the prize of the union state “Russia – Belarus” (2004). Member of the Union of Writers of Russia (2001). He was awarded the Pushkin Gold Medal "For Contribution to Culture and Art" (1999). Lives and works in Moscow.
(Source: International Joint Biographical Center)
