Alexey
Mikhailovich Gritsa

People's Artist of the USSR Aleksey Gritsai was awarded the Stalin Prizes (1951, 1952), the USSR State Prize (1978), and the Bronze Medal of the World Exhibition in Brussels (1958). A. M.He was born on March 7, 1914 in St. Petersburg. In his youth, Aleksey Gritsai received his first painting lessons from the masters of the old Imperial Academy, Robert Bach and Robert Zaleman. In 1932, Gritsai entered the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Architecture and Sculpture, where he studied under V.N. Yakovlev. He continued his studies in the workshop of the prominent Soviet painter I.I.Brodsky. Immediately after graduation, Gritsai was called up for military service in the artillery. From the first day of the Great Patriotic War, he was at the front, fought from the western border to Stalingrad. He was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree. After returning from the front, Gritsai was engaged in genre painting ("Meeting of the Presidium of the USSR Academy"), but landscapes depicting central Russia brought true glory to the artist. For a long time Gritsai taught at the Art School in memory of 1905 and at the Moscow State Art Institute named after Surikov. People's Artist of the USSR Aleksey Gritsai was awarded the Stalin Prizes (1951, 1952), the USSR State Prize (1978), and the Bronze Medal of the World Exhibition in Brussels (1958). A. M.